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

March 13 is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of up to $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 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 firms which have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday deadline, personnel professionals at a number of federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very 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 protects Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

All U.S. federal government firms have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary project to overhaul the federal government. Among 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 federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided perks of as much as $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 obstacles. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government task within 5 years.

"If your method is to get as lots of people out the door willingly, that decreases the danger of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public policy 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 workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage 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 planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has actually yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government's human resources department that is collecting the data, an individual knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your options as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email seen by Reuters. "The 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 an e-mail to all its 19,000 employees announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states the e-mail, examined 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 2 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 workers, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a legitimate program to further damage the abilities of agencies to complete their mission."

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)