The Bureau of Land Management recently sent an email to agency employees who have been asked to move out of Washington, DC as part of the agency’s relocation of its headquarters to Colorado with remaining options for those employees who have decided not to relocate.
The deadline for these employees to make a decision on relocating was this past Thursday, December 12.
In the email, William Perry Pendley, Deputy Director of Policy and Programs at BLM, said that he knew the decision on whether or not to relocate was difficult, but for employees not relocating, they had options.
“…affected employees receive early consideration for any new positions within the entire Department in the Washington area five days before being advertised on USAJobs. I have been working individually with the Department’s senior leadership to make sure that BLM employees have a fair shot at any postings that are available,” wrote Pendley.
He added that there were 21 positions currently available in the DC area and that efforts to place affected employees into jobs were “bearing fruit” as BLM had placed 30 agency employees into jobs.
He noted, however, that for employees who decline to relocate, Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VERA/VSIP) were being offered to eligible agency employees in the Washington office.
One news report said that as many as 80% of BLM employees may reject the opportunity to move and either retire or find another job. However, BLM said that it does not have any numbers available yet to share publicly. “It will take time to have an accurate count of how many employees will accept and how many will decline,” said an agency spokesperson.
A copy of Pendley’s email to agency employees is included below.
2019-12-12 BLM Email to Employees
