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

March 13 is due date to send strategies for large-scale layoffs

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

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal difficulty

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple government firms are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to submit 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 Food and Drug Administration, are among the firms which have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnel professionals at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unscrupulous loan providers.

All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented campaign to revamp the federal government. One of his leading consultants, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government's property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided bonus offers of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within five years.

"If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the threat 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 number of agencies have actually telegraphed via media leakages the number of employees they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

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

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on performance 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 workers revealing a Friday, March 14, to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," specifies 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 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, 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 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to more damage the capabilities of agencies to complete their mission."

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)