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

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

March 13 is due date to send prepare for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal challenge

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) – Multiple government companies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they scramble to fulfill President Donald Trump’s Thursday due date 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 among the agencies which have actually provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, human resource experts at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad claims 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 company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against deceitful loan providers.

All U.S. government agencies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump’s extraordinary campaign to upgrade the government. Among his top 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 residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource 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 obstacles. It likewise requires employees who have 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 voluntarily, that reduces the risk 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 telegraphed through media leaks the number of workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd 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 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has actually yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government’s human resources department that is collating the data, an individual familiar with the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

“I encourage each of you to consider your options as we move forward,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. “The new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on performance and high-value results.”

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all its 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

“There will be no extensions,” mentions the email, reviewed 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 employees accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the bonus, 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 using “a genuine program to further damage the capabilities of agencies to complete their mission.”

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)