Employment Lawyer Discusses what Trump Offer to Federal Employees to Resign Would Do

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal employees have till February 6 to decide whether to willingly leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, notified employees on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday – that’s less than a week from now – most will be allowed 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 actually do not consider it so much an offer. I believe it’s a request to resign with a vague guarantee that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for up to eight months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: referall.us Some people have actually been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is since there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for approximately 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s an extremely misleading term to utilize in this situation. When you consider a buyout, there’s typically some sort of composed arrangement or a concrete offer to provide a benefit in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your advice, what are you informing them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme care. There are no guarantees included in this e-mail. The only thing I can inform you for particular is that if you alter your mind, the firm’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Exists some category of employee who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that may this be an attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most cautious because leaving earlier than planned can have severe repercussions, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She informed press reporters that this is a good deal for individuals who do not wish to go back to the office. Let me just 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 really generously offering to pay them for 8 months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It just – in a method, it breaks my heart that federal employees are being jerked around like this. It sends a signal to me that this order remains in bad faith, that it’s created to get folks who work really hard to resign. I think it’s trying to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes due to the fact that there are no assurances. And these are individuals who love their task. They like the mission of the agency. They strive. And right now, they’re dealing with extremely tough options, especially if they’re remote. I imply, 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. or else we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal difficulties simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to find out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the offer itself may be challengeable. I believe the larger question is the execution of these terms. I’m not mindful of any authority that exists today for somalibidders.com OPM to purchase companies to offer this number of people administrative leave. So I believe it is quite possibly setting the phase for difficulties due to the fact that I feel OPM has significantly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work legal representative with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: adremcareers.com Thank you so much for having me here.

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