US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump’s Layoff Deadline

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

March 13 is deadline 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 federal government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce 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 amongst the firms which have offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who concur to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnel specialists at a number of federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unethical loan providers.

All U.S. federal government companies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s unprecedented campaign to revamp the federal government. One of his leading consultants, 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 residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also needs employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed through media leakages the number of employees they prepare to cut in the second stage 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 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government’s personnels department that is looking at the information, a person knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given up until March 12 to react.

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

« I encourage each of you to consider your options as we progress, » GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail seen by Reuters. « The new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value results. »

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would have 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 prior VSIP offer by adding that workers accepting it would get two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, 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 employees, stated the Trump administration was using « a genuine program to additional 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; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)