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

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

Workers would get buyout payment of as much as $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 firms are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, and the of Health and Human Services, including its Fda, are amongst the agencies which have actually used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resource professionals at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

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

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary campaign to revamp the 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 also looking for approval to use 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 already offered benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

"If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the risk 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 firms have actually telegraphed by means of media leaks the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no company has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is collecting the information, an individual knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given up 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 qualified 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 brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on performance and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all its 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states 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 two months of full pay in addition to the perk, 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 utilizing "a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of firms to complete 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)