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

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

Workers would get buyout payment of approximately $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 companies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they rush to satisfy President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit 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 companies which have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, personnel specialists at a number of federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling 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 safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

All U.S. government companies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to revamp 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 federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

"If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that decreases the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of companies have actually telegraphed via media leakages how lots of employees they plan to cut in the second stage 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 preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming due date, no agency has actually yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collecting the information, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on efficiency and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 workers announcing 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," specifies the e-mail, 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 deal by including that employees accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 federal government employees, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of firms to finish 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)