Facebook

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

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

March 13 is deadline to submit plans for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $25,000

*

Buyout program less vulnerable to legal challenge

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

March 11 (Reuters) – Multiple federal government firms 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 agencies which have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

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

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of 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 protects Americans versus unethical lending institutions.

All U.S. government firms have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s extraordinary campaign to revamp the federal government. Among 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 government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, 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 benefits of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another federal government job within five years.

“If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that reduces the danger 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 agencies have telegraphed through media leaks how numerous staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no firm has actually yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government’s personnels department that is collating the information, an individual knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

“I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we move on,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. “The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes.”

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

“There will be no extensions,” specifies 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 prior VSIP offer by including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, 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 genuine program to further damage the abilities of agencies to finish their objective.”

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