US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump’s Layoff Deadline

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 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 rush to meet President Donald Trump’s Thursday deadline for them to send plans 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 Fda, are amongst the agencies which have provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

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

All U.S. federal government companies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s extraordinary campaign to revamp 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 manages the government’s home portfolio, is also seeking 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 currently offered perks of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also 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 people out the door voluntarily, that minimizes the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run,” stated Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed via media leaks the number of staff members 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no company has actually yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government’s human resources department that is collecting the data, a person familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

At the General Services Administration, employees were informed on Monday that OPM had greenlit a strategy to use an early retirement program to all qualified workers.

“I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we move forward,” 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 performance and high-value outcomes.”

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

“There will be no extensions,” mentions the email, evaluated by and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA’s Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior VSIP deal by including that employees accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus, 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 workers, said the Trump administration was using “a legitimate program to more damage the capabilities of agencies to finish 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)