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

March 13 is due date to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of as much as $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal difficulty

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government companies are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they scramble to meet 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 used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who accept leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnel experts at several federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest lenders.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to upgrade the federal government. One of his leading advisors, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

"If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that minimizes the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed via media leaks the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collating the data, an individual familiar with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM employees, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to respond.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your options as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on efficiency and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all its 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," mentions the email, examined 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 offer by including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 government employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of firms to complete their mission."

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)