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

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

Workers would get buyout payment of as much as $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 federal government companies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit 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 companies which have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resource specialists at several federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against unethical lending institutions.

All U.S. government companies have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project 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 property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used benefits of up to $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 obstacles. It also needs workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

"If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that lowers the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of firms have actually telegraphed via media leaks how numerous workers they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They consist of 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 personnels department that is collecting the information, an individual familiar with the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to react.

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your options as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email seen by Reuters. "The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all its 19,000 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," states the email, reviewed 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 including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete 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 genuine program to more damage the capabilities of agencies to finish their objective."

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