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

Department workplaces ordered shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds new government report on incorrect payments, paragraphs 12-14)

By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Education said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government firms rushed to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to send strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department's "last objective," it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump's vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the would lead to the department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated "yes," adding that doing so "was the president's mandate." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm bought offices in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against unethical lenders.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world's wealthiest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has actually irritated a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have confronted mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first notable public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several firms have actually provided staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump's demand.

Affected Education Department staff members will be positioned on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department said.

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would fight the "drastic cuts."

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless employees who have actually committed their careers to serve their fellow Americans," said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just publicly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The overall improper payments figure was down greatly from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks. Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Fda.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at a number of federal companies told 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 essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a number of companies have telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These 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 staff.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 employees announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding two months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark beyond normal U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)