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

Agencies using lump-sum payments, early retirement program to cut federal employees

March 13 is deadline to send strategies for massive layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of up to $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 government firms are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they scramble to satisfy President Donald Trump’s Thursday due date for them to submit 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 Fda, are amongst the companies which have offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who accept leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at numerous federal Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole 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 strategies 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 manages the federal government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists 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 government task within five years.

“If your strategy is to get as many individuals out the door willingly, that decreases the danger 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 companies have actually telegraphed by means of media leaks how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage 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 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no company has yet submitted its job-cutting plan to OPM, the government’s human resources department that is looking at the information, an individual knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to respond.

At the General Services Administration, workers were informed 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 choices as we move on,” GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an e-mail 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 an email to all its 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, due date to opt 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 offer by including that employees accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the bonus, 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 additional damage the capabilities of agencies 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)