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

March 13 is due date to submit 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 challenge

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government companies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date 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 Food and Drug Administration, are among the firms which have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, human resource professionals at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unethical lenders.

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to revamp the 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 federal government's home portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the deal to pay back 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 minimizes the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of companies have actually telegraphed through media leakages the number of workers they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no firm has actually yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is looking at the information, an individual familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your choices as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on efficiency and high-value results."

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

"There will be no extensions," specifies 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 workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the benefit, 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 using "a genuine program to more damage the capabilities of firms to complete their mission."

OPM decreased to react to Lenkart's remarks. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne