US Agencies Offer Staff 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 massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $25,000

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Buyout program less susceptible 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 decrease headcount as they scramble to fulfill 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 agencies which have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who concur to leave their tasks.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resource experts at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very 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 deceitful lenders.

All U.S. government companies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump’s unprecedented project to upgrade the government. One of 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 use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided bonuses of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise needs employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government task within five years.

« If your technique is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that reduces the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run, » stated Don Moynihan, a public policy professor 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 prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include 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 due date, no firm has yet sent its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government’s human resources department that is looking at the data, an individual knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has provided 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 react.

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

« I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives as we progress, » 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 results. »

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all its 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, due date to decide into a VSIP. Those who accept would have 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, its previous VSIP deal by adding that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete 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 government employees, said the Trump administration was using « a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of agencies to finish 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)