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

March 13 is deadline to send 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 companies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send strategies 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 agencies which have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resource specialists at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus dishonest lenders.

All U.S. government companies have been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented campaign to revamp the federal government. Among his leading 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 property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel 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 obstacles. It likewise needs employees who have the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

"If your method 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 law teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed through media leakages the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second 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 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collating the data, a person acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we progress," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed 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 Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, due date to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states the e-mail, examined by Reuters and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA's Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous VSIP offer by including that workers accepting it would get two months of complete 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 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to more damage the abilities of agencies to complete their objective."

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