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

March 13 is due date to submit strategies for massive layoffs

Workers would get buyout payment of as much as $25,000

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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal difficulty

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 meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to submit prepare 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 amongst the companies which have actually used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who concur to leave their jobs.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, human resource specialists at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

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

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented campaign to revamp the government. One of his leading advisors, the tech billionaire Elon Musk, is leading that effort with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government's home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use 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 provided perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

"If your technique is to get as lots of people out the door willingly, that decreases the threat of court orders and opposition to you in the long run," stated Don Moynihan, a public policy teacher at the University of Michigan.

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of companies have telegraphed through media leakages the number 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 personnel.

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

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

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

"I motivate each of you to consider your choices 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 effective and laser-focused on effectiveness 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, due date to opt into a VSIP. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," specifies 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 prior VSIP offer by including that employees accepting it would get 2 months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, 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 workers, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to more damage the abilities of firms to complete their objective."

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)