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

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

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

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal obstacle

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 rush to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Food and Drug Administration, are among the firms which have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who concur to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnel professionals at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against deceitful lending institutions.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary campaign to overhaul the federal government. One of his top 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 government's property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and has already provided rewards of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance specialists stated 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 employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

"If your technique is to get as lots of people out the door voluntarily, that lowers the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of companies have actually telegraphed by means of media leaks how lots of staff members they prepare to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no company has yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collating the information, a person knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail 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 Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all its 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to choose 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 adding that workers accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters.

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

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