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

March 13 is deadline to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $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 government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send strategies 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 among the firms which have provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource professionals at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to overhaul the government. One of his top 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 residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed by means of media leaks the number of workers they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 due date, no agency has actually yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's personnels department that is collating the data, a person knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered up until March 12 to react.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your options as we move forward," 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 efficiency and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states the e-mail, 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 offer by adding that employees 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 federal government employees, said the Trump administration was using "a legitimate program to additional damage the capabilities of agencies to finish their mission."

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