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

March 13 is deadline to send prepare for massive layoffs

Workers would receive 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 minimize headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to send strategies 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 amongst the companies which have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unethical loan providers.

All U.S. federal government firms have been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched project to overhaul the federal government. Among his leading advisers, 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 property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, 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 offered benefits of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also requires employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another within five years.

"If your method is to get as lots of people out the door voluntarily, that lowers the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of companies have telegraphed via media leakages how numerous employees they prepare 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming due date, no company has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collecting the information, a person knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided until March 12 to respond.

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail 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 out an e-mail to all its 19,000 employees revealing 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, 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 including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the bonus, 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 using "a genuine program to further damage the abilities of firms to finish their objective."

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)