U.S. Department of Education employees received a $25,000 “voluntary separation incentive payment” offer on Friday – with the offer first appearing via email on Friday morning before disappearing minutes later, according to multiple sources who have either received or reviewed the e-mail.
The offer was then re-sent after 1 p.m. without explanation, the News4 I-Team has learned.
The email, which came from the Education Department’s chief human capital officer, Jacqueline Clay, states the offer will expire at 11:59 P.M. on Monday, March 3 and is a “one-time offer in advance of a very significant reduction in Force for the U.S. Department of Education.”
A spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed it was re-sent Friday afternoon but has not responded to multiple questions about details of the offer.
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The offer includes a contract and stipulations, among them that people who take the payment can’t work for the federal government for the next five years unless they pay the $25,000 back. According to the email, eligible employees include those who have worked there for at least three years.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the “Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment Authority, also known as buyout authority, allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer employees lump-sum payments up to $25,000 as an incentive to voluntarily separate.”
The OPM website goes on to state it’s typically used so “agencies can minimize or avoid involuntary separations through the use of costly and disruptive reductions in force (RIFs).”
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On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to eliminate the department, which he has called a “con job.”
The president can’t abolish the department, which has the smallest staff count among the Cabinet agencies, without Congressional approval. Experts tell the I-Team, however, he can weaken its operations.
Since assuming office, he and billionaire Elon Musk have taken steps toward that by slashing staff – eliminating at least 70 workers and placing 75 more on leave, according to union reps – and slashing millions of dollars’ worth of contracts.
The offer also arrived as the U.S. Senate is poised to vote on the nomination of Linda McMahon as Education Secretary next week.
