Agencies utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement program to cut federal workers
March 13 is deadline to send plans 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 federal government companies are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they rush to satisfy President Donald Trump's Thursday due date for them to send strategies 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 agencies which have provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers 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 way to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnel professionals at several federal firms told Reuters.
The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus unethical lending institutions.
All U.S. government firms have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary campaign to revamp the government. Among his top consultants, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
The General Services Administration, which handles the government's property portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and has already provided bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.
Personnel and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also needs workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another federal government task within five years.
"If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that reduces the threat 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 through media leaks the number of workers they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.
Despite the looming deadline, no company has actually yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is looking at the data, a person familiar with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.
OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given up until March 12 to react.
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 qualified workers.
"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email seen by Reuters. "The 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 an email to all its 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.
"There will be no extensions," specifies the e-mail, 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 offer by including that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, 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, said the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to additional damage the abilities of companies 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)