VA cancels mass layoff, saying enough workers have left. Here’s what that means in Philadelphia.
Amid agency changes, some VA workers in Philadelphia were looking to leave their jobs. The agency says enough have left across the country to avoid a reduction in force.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which employs more people in Pennsylvania than any other agency, may not follow through with expected plans to lay off thousands of workers.
President Donald Trump’s administration ordered federal agencies to draw up “reorganization plans” earlier this year with the goal of reducing staffing. More than 80,000 workers were expected to be cut from the VA, The Associated Press reported in March.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s plans for reducing and restructuring the federal workforce got a go-ahead from the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, as justices lifted a ban from a San Francisco-based U.S. district judge that prevented large-scale layoffs, or “reduction in force,” from taking place. It did not assess the legality of any of the Trump administration’s workforce reduction plans.
But it’s looking like a different story at the VA. The department announced on Monday that it is on pace to have reduced staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of fiscal year 2025 due to the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements, and “normal attrition.” This has allowed the VA to forgo its plans for mass layoffs to cut its workforce by 15%, the statement notes.
Philadelphia-area VA employees are feeling a “sense of relief,” at this news, said Yul Owens Jr., executive vice president of AFGE Local 1793. Nonetheless, the union’s stance nationally is, “We’re not letting our guard down,” he said Tuesday.
As of early April, his union had some 1,400 members. It represents Veterans Health Administration nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and others at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in West Philadelphia, administrative offices, and community care-based clinics in the area.
VA Secretary Doug Collins said the “department-wide RIF is off the table,” thanks to the department’s “holistic review” of its operations. “As a result of our efforts, VA is headed in the right direction — both in terms of staff levels and customer service,” Collins said.
But Owens attributes the recent change in plans at the VA to the work the union has been doing, including rallies and legal challenges.
“This wasn’t out of the kindness of their hearts — by no means. The reason that this is done … is from the hard work from our union.”
How many have already left the VA?
The VA is the largest federal-government employer in Pennsylvania. As of the end of March, the department had 19,215 workers in the state, according to data estimates from the Office of Personnel Management.
The VA had 1,561 workers in Delaware and 4,400 in New Jersey, according to the same estimates. They include workers who are on administrative leave pending resignation, or in the process of retirement.
A Philadelphia-area union representative, who asked to speak anonymously out of fear of workplace retaliation, told The Inquirer Tuesday that the VA scrapping its plans for large-scale layoffs is “a huge win for the little guy.” At the same time, they said, it’s “bittersweet” given the changes that have already taken place at the agency.
“I think anybody who is eligible sees the writing on the wall that this is not a place where they want to work anymore, so they took the opportunity to leave of their own volition,” the union representative said.
“It’s good news that they’re not shooting for 80,000, the bad news is that they’re not shooting for 80,000 because they’ve [already] lost a ton of people,” the union representative said. They expect that the department will be “woefully understaffed,” which will “majorly” impact veterans, including positions in VBA claims processing and administrative support.
The VA says it has “multiple safeguards in place to ensure these staff reductions do not impact veteran care or benefits" and that “VA mission-critical positions” are exempt from the various government programs that have been cutting the workforce.
“We’ve been able to use the attrition, use the deferred retirement plan, to actually get us to our goal of making sure that we’re more aligned with what we need to be doing, and that is taking care of veterans,” said Secretary Collins in an interview with Fox. “We’ve got some other things that we want to do in the future, but this is a great start, and it’s making sure our veterans are taken care of.”
How many local VA employees are leaving?
The VA said on Monday that its workforce has been reduced by nearly 17,000 employees between Jan. 1 and June 1, from 484,000 employees to 467,000 employees.
On Monday, Owens noted that some 50 bargaining-unit employees represented by his local have applied for the deferred resignation program, but he says they’re still waiting to hear if they will be approved.
Since January, Owens has noticed a slight uptick in the amount of retirements, he said, but he’s not aware of a loss of workers impacting services.
It remains unclear to VBA union representatives how many members took the deferred resignation program offer.
Data reporter Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.