RIF Legal Center

ABCs of RIF

This web center is designed to serve as a primer in the topic of reductions in force or RIF – the means by which federal agencies execute involuntary downsizing or layoffs.

This is an especially turbulent period for federal service and the outcomes of current and coming budgetary clashes remains uncertain. So, if RIF scenarios unfold, we are trying to be as prepared as we can be to assist targeted employees.

PEER helped federal employees subjected to RIFs during the Clinton era occasioned by the “Gingrich Revolution” in which new Republican majorities pulled hard on federal purse strings – particularly of agencies that obstructed acheievement of their agenda. 

This center takes you through the bases for, mechanics of, alternatives to, and means for challenging RIFs.  It is not intended to offer any specific legal advice but only to provide some basic legal terrain of territory not recently explored.