US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump's Layoff Deadline > 자유게시판

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

March 13 is deadline 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 government agencies are turning to early retirement programs to reduce headcount as they rush to fulfill 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 firms which have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who concur to leave their jobs.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnel experts at numerous federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled whole departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous loan providers.

All U.S. federal government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched campaign to revamp 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 government's property portfolio, is also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to . It also requires employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed through media leaks the number of employees they plan to cut in the second phase 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 due date, no company has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's human resources department that is collecting the data, an individual knowledgeable about the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

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

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

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

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

"There will be no extensions," mentions 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 adding that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the perk, 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 workers, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to further damage the abilities of firms to finish their objective."

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