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

March 13 is due date to send strategies for large-scale layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal obstacle

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they rush to fulfill 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 companies which have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at several federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

All U.S. government companies have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to revamp the government. Among his top advisers, 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 home portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within five years.

"If your technique is to get as lots of individuals out the door willingly, that minimizes the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public law teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed via media leakages how many employees 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has actually yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collecting the data, a person acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given up until March 12 to respond.

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we progress," 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 an e-mail to all its 19,000 workers announcing 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, 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 offer by including that workers 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 employees, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to further damage the capabilities of companies to complete their objective."

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)