Millions of federal workers are increasingly pondering their next career moves The judge on Thursday was temporarily suspended Human Resources Bureau deadline to accept or reject agents Offering to “postponed resignation”.
The cutoff for making the deal was set to expire at midnight Eastern Time on Thursday before a ruling from US District Judge George O’Toole banned the deadline. Justice Department lawyers said the agency that sent the original offer would inform government officials that the deadline has been suspended until further legal proceedings are pending.
“The deadline for accepting a postponed resignation program in accordance with court orders for federal employees to accept a postponed resignation program is extended Monday, February 10th at 11:59pm,” OPM said in a social media post. . “The program has not been blocked or cancelled. The government respects any postponed resignation offers.”
Under the OPM offer, employees who accept it will continue to pay until September, but are allowed to report the worker. However, if they choose to continue their work, they could be fired.
One of the challenges affecting the careers and livelihoods of 2.3 million private federal employees, according to employment lawyers and government watchdogs. Partly, this poses financial and professional risks to the offer, while the workers are at risk of what they have not signed up for. Because it contains many provisions that pose a risk, experts told CBS MoneyWatch.
The Trump administration may also lack the authority to extend such transactions, and therefore deferred resignation is said to have broken many laws, filed by the Federal Employees Union on February 4th The February 4th lawsuit alleges. The plaintiffs in that case have asked the court to block the government’s offer. The government’s offer, described as “arbitrary and whimsical,” violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a 1946 law governing the way federal agencies implement regulations.
The postponed offer to resignation was caused by federal workers. Office 5 days a week While instructing government agencies to finish remote work arrangements. The White House expects to persuade him to step down about 10% of the federal private workforce, saving $100 billion a year.
According to the OPM, the offer is unavailable to military members, U.S. Post Office workers, and those who work in jobs related to immigration enforcement and national security.
According to CBS News sources familiar with the issue, until February 5th, around 40,000 federal workers accepted the transaction, or about 2% of federal workers.
“We are encouraging federal workers in the city to accept very generous offers,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday around Judge O’Toole’s ruling. “They don’t want to come to the office. If they want to tear the Americans apart, they welcome this acquisition and we find people who are very qualified to replace them.”
Risks to workers
The OPM offer includes many gray areas that could present pitfalls to employees accepting it, legal sources and union officials said.
“We’re a great place to go,” said Ryan Nerney, managing partner at law firm Tully Rinckey and federal employment law expert. “Let’s say we decide to adopt this, our power has been reduced and our work has been removed. There is no guidance on what will happen in such a situation. Will we be paid until September 30th?”
The agency’s emails lack details and guarantees about the offer, and in addition to the confusion among government workers, Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Officers, told CBS Money Watch.
“It’s very confused – you say you don’t need to fulfill your duty in your position anymore, but there’s a warning that if they need you, you have to continue doing it.” said Greenwald. It is not expected to work except in “rare circumstances.”
Twelve state attorney generals across the country warned federal workers about accepting offers and describing them as “misleading” and urging employees to scrutinise their terms.
Elon Musk’s “Road Fork”
Federal workers received the Trump administration’s offer last month in an email entitled “A Fork in the Road,” and are now billionaires to employees of Twitter, a social media platform they purchased since October 2022. It reflects the subject line of a 2022 message sent by Elon Musk. I changed the name of X.
Like previous deals on Twitter, OPM offers include a request for federal workers to make decisions on a specific date. In an email in 2022, Musk told Twitter employees he had a day to decide to agree to work “hardcore” style or to retire for three months.
Musk is spearheaded by the White House government efficiency or Doge, the non-governmental task force where President Trump cuts federal costs. Tesla’s CEO has promoted the government’s postponed resignation offer in X, and while receiving government pay and benefits by September, employees accepting it can “do whatever you like.” It claims that it can be done.
It could attack some workers quite a bit, but the union’s lawsuit argues that OPM may not have the financial authority to make that offer. For example, the agency email says it will pay workers who agree to resign by February 6, but most federal agencies’ funds expire on March 14.
This indicates that the Trump administration plans to spend the money “before the budget is approved,” the lawsuit alleges. If so, it could violate the Anti-Success Act, a law that prohibits federal agencies from exceeding their assigned levels, the lawsuit alleges.
The delayed offer of resignation is also said to violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit alleges. According to the law, the courts can determine that the agency’s actions are illegal if they are “arbitrarily, whimsical, discretionary abuse, or not following the law.”
And Robert Weissman, co-president of the government’s Watchdog Group Public Citizens, said it is not clear what will happen to federal workers who accept the offer if it is found illegal by the court. “I could imagine you being told you’re not working back to work. I’m not going to pay you for illegal programs,” he said.
Government officials must be skeptical of what is actually delivered through this offer,” Weissman added.
Is it impact on federal services?
The offer also fails to consider the impact of widespread resignation on the government’s ability to serve Americans, the union lawsuit alleges. Twitter (currently x) is suffering from a Number of problems The complaint states after Musk cuts down a large portion of its workforce, including a decline in advertisers and a sharp decline in valuations.
Experts say that if agencies lack sufficient staff to handle some services, such as tax refund processing, social security verification and health care provision through Medicaid, employment cuts means will cause disruption. May cause.
“There is no slush fund on board with 10% of employees that (the public) would not harm this,” Greenwald said. “The federal government is not Twitter. It is funded by Congress and budgeted by the process, and is set to support the laws passed by Congress.”
Also, federal employee unions are rubbing for workers to make decisions in the nine-day window of OPM. The lawsuit was chosen to put maximum pressure on the federal workforce and accept the offer. Many against the interests of federal agencies and employees of the federal government in the case of.”
Giving federal employees more than one week to give them more than one week is a break from previous voluntary resignation offers, and the Clinton administration’s acquisition of a year for workers to accept the deal The lawsuit points out that it will provide it.
Still, it may make sense for some government workers, including those who are already planning to retire soon despite the unknown OPM offers, Nerney said Ta.
I contributed to this report.
