Agencies utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement program to cut federal employees

March 13 is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal challenge

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Fda, are amongst the agencies which have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday due date, personnel professionals at several federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against deceitful lending institutions.

All U.S. government firms have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to revamp the government. Among his top advisers, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently provided bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another government job within 5 years.

"If your technique is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that lowers the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed by means of media leakages the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collecting the data, a person acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to react.

At the General Services Administration, staff members were notified on Monday that OPM had greenlit a strategy to provide an early retirement program to all qualified employees.

"I motivate each of you to consider your options as we progress," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. "The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value results."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," mentions the email, evaluated by Reuters and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA's Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior VSIP deal by including that employees accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Employees, a union which represents 110,000 government workers, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a legitimate program to additional damage the abilities of companies to finish their objective."

OPM decreased to react to Lenkart's remarks. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)