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US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump's Layoff Deadline > 자유게시판
US Agencies Offer Staff new Buyouts Ahead Of Trump's Layoff Deadline
작성일작성일: 2025-06-11 10:27
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 receive buyout payment of as much as $25,000
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Buyout program less vulnerable to legal challenge
By Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne
March 11 (Reuters) - Multiple government companies are turning to early retirement programs to minimize headcount as they rush to fulfill President Donald Trump's Thursday deadline for them to send plans 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 amongst the companies which have actually used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept leave their jobs.
The buyout provides, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday deadline, human resource professionals at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.
The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and dismantled entire departments like USAID, the U.S. humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unethical loan providers.
All U.S. government companies have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday as part of Trump's unprecedented 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 home portfolio, is likewise to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.
Personnel and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program, called voluntary separation incentive payments, is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.
"If your strategy is to get as many 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 policy professor at the University of Michigan.
OPM STILL WAITING FOR PLANS
Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed via media leakages the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. They include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending 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 due date, no firm has yet sent its job-cutting strategy to OPM, the federal government's human resources department that is collating the information, an individual knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters. OPM decreased to comment.
OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 OPM workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.
At the General Services Administration, staff members were notified on Monday that OPM had greenlit a strategy to use an early retirement program to all qualified employees.
"I motivate each of you to consider your choices as we move forward," GSA Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian wrote in an email seen by Reuters. "The new GSA will be slimmer, more efficient and laser-focused on performance and high-value results."
On March 10, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all its 19,000 workers announcing 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 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 offer by adding that employees accepting it would get two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, 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 utilizing "a legitimate program to additional damage the abilities of agencies to complete their mission."
OPM declined to react to Lenkart's comments. (Reporting by Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid, Marisa Taylor and Nathan Layne; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)