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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 due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout of up to $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 government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump’s Thursday due date for them to send prepare 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 Food and Drug Administration, are among the companies which have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource professionals at a number of federal firms informed Reuters.

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

All U.S. federal government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump’s unmatched campaign to upgrade the federal government. One of his top consultants, 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 also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance experts 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 employees who have accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

« If your method is to get as lots of people out the door willingly, that lowers the threat 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 couple of firms have telegraphed via media leakages how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, 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 plan to OPM, the federal government’s human resources department that is collating the information, an individual acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

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

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

« I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we progress, » 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 an email to all its 19,000 employees revealing 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, » mentions 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 workers accepting it would get two months of complete 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 employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing « a legitimate program to further damage the capabilities of agencies to complete their objective. »

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