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

March 13 is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of as much as $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 firms are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send strategies 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 among the firms which have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree to leave their tasks.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnel experts at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and took apart whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to upgrade the government. Among his leading 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 residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel 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 experts stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within five years.

"If your method is to get as lots of people out the door willingly, that lowers 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 number of companies have telegraphed by means of media leakages the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is looking at the data, an individual acquainted with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an e-mail seen by Reuters. "The brand-new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on efficiency and high-value outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 workers 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 email, evaluated by Reuters and signed by Tania Tse, director of the FDA's Office of Human Capital Management.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior VSIP deal by including that workers accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the reward, 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, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of companies to finish their mission."

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