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

• 목록
• 답변
• 글쓰기
• 게시판 리스트 옵션
  • 수정
  • 삭제

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

March 13 is deadline to send plans for large-scale layoffs

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

*

Buyout program less susceptible to legal obstacle

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

March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple federal government firms are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they scramble to meet President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send plans 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 Fda, are amongst the companies which have provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their tasks.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnel specialists at several federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of 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 protects Americans against unethical lenders.

All U.S. government agencies have been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday as part of Trump's unmatched project to overhaul the federal government. Among 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 handles the government's residential or portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resource and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation reward payments, is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

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

OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed by means of media leaks the number of employees they prepare 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

Despite the looming deadline, no firm has yet submitted its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the government's personnels department that is collecting the data, a person acquainted with the matter informed Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.

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

"I encourage each of you to consider your alternatives as we move on," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian composed in an email seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more effective and laser-focused on performance and high-value results."

On March 10, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all its 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline to choose into a VSIP. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

"There will be no extensions," mentions the e-mail, examined 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 including that workers accepting it would get 2 months of complete 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 federal government workers, stated the Trump administration was using "a genuine program to additional damage the capabilities of companies to complete 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)