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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 get buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal difficulty

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 rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to send plans 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 amongst the agencies which have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday due date, human resource professionals at numerous federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad claims after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Bureau, which secures Americans against unethical loan providers.

All U.S. government agencies have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to overhaul the government. One of 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 handles the government's home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within five years.

"If your method is to get as lots of people out the door voluntarily, that minimizes the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of firms have actually telegraphed via media leakages how many staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They include 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 company has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collating the data, a person familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM declined 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 respond.

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

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

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would need 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 previous VSIP deal by adding that employees accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the perk, 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 government workers, said the Trump administration was using "a legitimate program to more damage the abilities of companies to complete their objective."

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