US Agencies Offer Staff Brand-new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump’s Layoff Deadline
Agencies using lump-sum payments, early retirement program to cut federal workers
March 13 is due date to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs
Workers would receive buyout payment of as much as $25,000
*
Buyout program less susceptible to legal challenge
By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne
March 11 (Reuters) – Multiple federal government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they rush to meet President Donald Trump’s Thursday deadline for them to send 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 offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs.
The buyout uses, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnel specialists at several federal agencies told Reuters.
The Trump administration has been facing myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against dishonest loan providers.
All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump’s unprecedented campaign to 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 government’s home 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 actually currently used bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.
Personnel and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.
“If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that lowers the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run,” said Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan.
OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS
Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed via media leaks how many staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.
Despite the looming due date, no company has actually yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government’s human resources department that is collating the data, an individual acquainted with the matter told 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 given until March 12 to react.
At the General Services Administration, staff members were notified 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 effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes.”
On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all its 19,000 employees announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.
“There will be no extensions,” states 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 previous VSIP offer by including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete 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 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was utilizing “a legitimate program to more damage the abilities of companies 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)
