DOL Expands Exit Offers Agency-Wide, Warning of Future Layoffs

The Trump administration offered US Department of Labor employees another chance to leave their jobs through early retirements or “deferred resignations” to avoid impending agency layoffs.

In an email message sent to DOL employees Tuesday afternoon, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said that the agency was reopening its early retirement and resignation program as part of “the next phase” of President Donald Trump’s directives to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

The agency will announce plans to implement Reductions in Force “in the coming weeks,” Chavez-DeRemer said in the email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

“My goal is to provide as many options and as much information as possible to enable informed decision-making regarding your career and your future,” she added.

Agency employees except for Office of Inspector General staff are eligible to opt into the programs through April 18, according to the email. Some employees of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Wage and Hour Division are exempted from deferred resignation program, according to a document from the DOL obtained by Bloomberg Law.

Under the deferred resignation program, DOL employees agree to separate from the agency but maintain their pay and benefits through Sept. 30. During that period, staff aren’t expected to return to office in-person, according to a draft deferred resignation agreement obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The new offer sent agency-wide Tuesday expands on a similar exit option sent last week to employees at the DOL’s International Labor Affairs Bureau, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Women’s Bureau, and the Office of Public Affairs. Workers at those agencies have until April 14 to decide on their future at the agency.

The Trump administration has already moved to terminate probationary employees at the department’s Women’s Bureau, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Employee Benefits Security Administration, and ILAB. But some, if not all of those staff have since been reinstated following various court orders.