The Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has renewed its offer of deferred resignations, telling employees that they must respond by April 30 to qualify.
VA Secretary Doug Collins wrote in an email sent to employees Friday evening that the agency was extending an offer of deferred resignation or retirement prior to a reduction in the workforce that will take place later in the fiscal year.
Employees approved for the program will receive full pay and benefits through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, Collins said.
The program opened Monday and will end at 5 p.m. April 30.
Other federal departments recently announced they are offering a second round of deferred resignation opportunities to employees. They include the Defense Department, Small Business Administration and the House and Urban Development Department.
The VA expects to decrease 15% of its personnel, according to Collins, after an initial round of layoffs in February targeted probationary workers across the federal workforce. The agency employs 470,000 people.
VA’s goal is to reorganize the agency to improve productivity and efficiency through a mass reduction in personnel, Collins wrote in the email.
Employees approved for the program will not be subject to layoffs under a reduction in force or “other premature separation,” he said.
Reorganizing the VA “will result in better customer service and convenience for everyone the department exists to serve,” Collins said.
The layoffs also align with an order by President Donald Trump to downsize the federal workforce.
Qualifying employees who opt into the resignation and retirement program will receive “immediate deferred resignation or retirement,” according to a separate VA memo issued Friday titled “Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer Bulletin.”
The bulletin details the purpose and procedures for the deferred resignation and retirement program.
The Office of Personnel Management granted the VA permission to offer early retirement to qualifying employees, according to the bulletin.
More information on qualifying for and taking early retirement will be published shortly, Collins wrote in his email to employees.
The effective date of a resignation or retirement must be by Sept. 30, the bulletin stated.
A deferred resignation program that the Office of Personnel Management offered federal workers in February also enabled qualifying employees to be placed on paid administrative leave through Sept. 30.
“Administrative leave is an administratively authorized absence from duty without loss of pay or charge to leave,” according to the Office of Personnel Management website.
Deferred resignation at the VA is available to full-time employees whose jobs are not considered critical for the agency to fulfill its mission, according to the bulletin.
Essential roles typically involve personnel who provide direct care to veterans or who support the direct care of veterans. The VA bulletin included a list of roles ineligible for the deferred resignation program, including medical personnel, police, crisis responders and pharmacists.
VA employees approved for deferred resignation cannot go on administrative leave prior to the agreement being approved and signed, the memo said.
But federal workers terminated under a reduction in force or layoffs might be eligible for severance pay, according to an Office of Personnel Management “Fact Sheet” on the agency’s website.
Severance pay is authorized for “covered full-time and part-time employees who are involuntarily separated from federal service and who meet other conditions of eligibility,” according to the agency. But qualifying employees who accept deferred resignations are not eligible for severance pay.
An “involuntary separation” is a job termination initiated by the employer “for reasons other than inefficiency, where inefficiency means unacceptable performance or conduct that leads to a separation,” according to the agency. Workers must have been in continuous service in one or more civilian federal positions for at least 12 months without a break in service of more than three calendar days.
