US Agencies Offer Staff Brand-new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump's Layoff Deadline > 상담신청

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

March 13 is due date to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

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

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Buyout program less susceptible to legal difficulty

By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal 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 send 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 among the companies which have offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their jobs.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted 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 grappling 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 help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against unethical lending institutions.

All U.S. government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's extraordinary project 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 manages the federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It also requires employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

"If your method is to get as lots of individuals out the door willingly, that lowers the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," said Don Moynihan, a public law professor at the University of .

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed through media leaks how lots of workers they plan to cut in the 2nd stage 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's personnels department that is looking at the data, an individual knowledgeable about 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 knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to react.

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your alternatives 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 performance and high-value results."

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

"There will be no extensions," specifies the email, reviewed 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 bonus, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters.

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union which represents 110,000 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was utilizing "a legitimate program to further damage the capabilities of firms to complete their mission."

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