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Employment Lawyer Discusses what Trump Offer to Federal Employees to Resign Would Do
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal workers have up until February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed employees on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday – that’s less than a week from now – most will be permitted to depart and be paid up until completion of September.
Michelle Bercovici is a work legal representative who represents federal workers as a big part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would actually mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I really don’t consider it so much an offer. I think it’s a to resign with an unclear pledge that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for approximately eight months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is due to the fact that there appears to be the offer of administrative leave for up to eight months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s an extremely deceptive term to utilize in this situation. When you think of a buyout, there’s usually some sort of written arrangement or a concrete offer to supply an advantage in exchange for referall.us waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your suggestions, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme care. There are no warranties consisted of in this e-mail. The only thing I can inform you for particular is that if you change your mind, the agency’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some category of staff member who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that might this be an attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most careful because leaving earlier than meant can have serious consequences, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is a good offer for individuals who don’t want to return to the workplace. Let me simply play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is an idea to federal employees that they need to return in – to work. And if they don’t, then they have the option to resign, and this administration is extremely generously providing to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in a manner, it breaks my heart that federal workers are being jerked around like this. It sends out a signal to me that this return-to-office order remains in bad faith, that it’s developed to get folks who work really difficult to resign. I think it’s attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of individuals’s eyes since there are no warranties. And these are individuals who enjoy their task. They enjoy the objective of the firm. They work hard.
And today, they’re facing really difficult options, particularly if they’re remote. I suggest, it’s really coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who lives in Oregon and has been told to report to D.C. otherwise we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you prepare for legal challenges simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be sincere, is so extraordinary that I think a lot of us are still trying to figure out what to do with it. I’m not sure if the deal itself might be challengeable. I think the larger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not conscious of any authority that exists today for OPM to buy firms to offer this number of people administrative leave. So I think it is quite potentially setting the stage for difficulties since I feel OPM has actually greatly surpassed their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is an employment legal representative with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you a lot for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.
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