US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump’s Layoff Deadline

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

March 13 is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of approximately $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable 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 lower headcount as they rush to fulfill 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 approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnel experts at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unethical lenders.

All U.S. federal government firms have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump’s unprecedented campaign to revamp the federal 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 federal government’s home portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnel and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

“If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run,” said Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed by means of media leaks the number of they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming due date, no company has yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the federal government’s personnels department that is collating the information, an individual acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM declined to comment.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.

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

“I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we progress,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail seen by Reuters. “The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on effectiveness and high-value outcomes.”

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

“There will be no extensions,” mentions 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 deal by including that employees accepting it would get two 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, said the Trump administration was utilizing “a legitimate program to more damage the abilities of firms to complete their mission.”

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