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

March 13 is deadline to send strategies for massive layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of approximately $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 federal government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to decrease headcount as they rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to submit plans 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 firms which have actually used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at a number of federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unscrupulous lending institutions.

All U.S. government firms have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented to upgrade the government. One of 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 federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance professionals stated 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 actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government task within five years.

"If your method is to get as lots of people out the door voluntarily, that minimizes 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 by means of media leakages the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include 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 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is collecting the data, a person acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to react.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we progress," 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 out an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members 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," mentions 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 adding that employees accepting it would get two 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 additional damage the capabilities of firms to complete their mission."

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