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 send prepare for large-scale layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal difficulty

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

March 11 (Reuters) – Multiple government companies are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they rush to satisfy 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 Fda, are among the firms which have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnel specialists at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

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

All U.S. government companies have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s unprecedented campaign to upgrade 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 handles the government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists 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 needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

“If your strategy is to get as lots of individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the risk 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 couple of firms have telegraphed via media leaks the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no company has yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government’s personnels department that is collecting the information, a person acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

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

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

“I encourage each of you to consider your choices as we move forward,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email 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 Fda sent out an email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

“There will be no extensions,” specifies the e-mail, reviewed 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 adding that employees accepting it would get two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus, 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 government workers, said the Trump administration was utilizing “a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of companies to complete their mission.”

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