The U.S. Transportation Department is giving employees a second opportunity to voluntarily resign as part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to downsize the government work force.
In an email to staff Tuesday morning, the agency said workers had until April 7 to accept the “strictly voluntary” buyout offer under the deferred resignation program. Employees who choose to participate will continue receiving their salaries through Sept. 30 without being required to report to work, according to the email workers received.
Participants are also protected from being terminated through an “involuntary separation, such as reduction in force.”
Positions the agency has deemed critical for safety — including air traffic controllers, railroad safety inspectors and motor carrier safety specialists — are excluded from the offer.
An agency spokeswoman said there was no specific target for the reduction in the number of employees the buyouts were expected to achieve. The department is offering the second wave of buyouts to accommodate employees who may have declined the initial offer because of the confusion and the disruption surrounding the first round, the agency spokeswoman said.
“This is just one part of our effort to make D.O.T. more efficient and accountable to the taxpayer,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
Workers at other federal agencies are also facing efforts to further reduce their work force. Thousands of people with the Department of Health and Human Services received layoff notices starting at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Since the first round of deferred resignations concluded, agencies have started a series of layoffs and terminations that have led to tens of thousands of job cuts. It’s unclear how many Transportation Department workers took the voluntary buyout when it was first offered.
The dismissals have been carried out in coordination with the Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and have set off several lawsuits that remain pending in the courts.