Trump Offers Federal Workers Eight Months Pay to Resign

The BBC is reporting that US President Donald Trump has offered buyout packages to almost all federal employees, a major move designed to shrink and reform the US government.

In an email sent on Tuesday, his administration told workers they had to decide by February 6 whether they wanted to be part of a “deferred resignation” programme.

If they agree by then to quit in September, the message said, they would receive about eight months’ worth of salary as a severance package.

According to the BBC’s US partner CBS News, the Trump administration expects up to 10 percent of employees to accept the offer – which equates to about 2-hundred thousand of the more than two million people who work for the federal government.

Senior Trump officials told US media that the buyouts could save the government up to 1-hundred billion dollars.

The message from the US Office of Personnel Management, OPM, the government’s HR agency, highlighted planned reforms to the government, including a requirement that most employees work in their offices five days a week.

Since returning to the White House last week, Trump has already declared the end of Covid-era home working practices.

The OPM said the offer was available to “all full-time federal employees” – excluding certain staff such as postal workers, members of the military, immigration officials, and some national security teams.