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

March 13 is due date to send strategies for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal challenge

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they rush to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit 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 amongst the firms which have used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnel experts at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus dishonest loan providers.

All U.S. federal government companies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to revamp the federal government. Among his leading consultants, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government's home portfolio, is also looking for approval to use 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 actually currently provided bonus offers of up to $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 difficulties. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the offer to repay the money if they take another government task within five years.

"If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that decreases the threat 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 couple of firms have telegraphed through media leaks how many staff members 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 planning to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has actually yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is looking at the information, a person acquainted with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your choices as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail 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 Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all its 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states 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 previous VSIP deal by including that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the reward, 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, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to more damage the abilities of agencies to complete their objective."

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