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

March 13 is due date to for large-scale layoffs

Workers would receive buyout payment of as much as $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 government firms are turning to early retirement programs to lower headcount as they scramble to meet 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 among the firms which have actually used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who concur to leave their tasks.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, personnel experts at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus unscrupulous lending institutions.

All U.S. government firms have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented project to overhaul the government. One of his leading advisers, 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 likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently offered perks of as much as $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 susceptible to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

"If your method is to get as many individuals out the door voluntarily, that decreases the risk of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public law teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed by means of media leakages the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. They consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

Despite the looming deadline, no agency has actually yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's personnels department that is looking at the data, an individual acquainted with the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has actually 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 react.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your options as we move forward," 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 outcomes."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all its 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," states 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 offer by adding that workers accepting it would get 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, 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 government workers, said the Trump administration was utilizing "a genuine program to more damage the capabilities of agencies to finish their objective."

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