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

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

Workers would get buyout payment of up to $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 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 agencies which have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, human resource professionals at several federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus dishonest lending institutions.

All U.S. government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented campaign to upgrade the government. Among 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 handles the federal government's property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered rewards of approximately $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 susceptible to legal obstacles. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

"If your technique is to get as lots of individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the threat 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 companies have actually telegraphed by means of media leakages the number of employees they to cut in the 2nd phase 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is collecting the information, an individual acquainted with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your choices as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email 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, due date to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," mentions 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 deal by adding that employees accepting it would get two months of full 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 government workers, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to further damage the abilities of companies to finish their mission."

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