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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have until February 6 to choose 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 enabled to depart and be paid up until completion of September. Michelle Bercovici is a work legal representative who represents federal workers as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact do not consider it a lot an offer. I believe it’s a demand to resign with an unclear guarantee that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for approximately 8 months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have been utilizing the term buyout to describe what this is since there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for up to eight months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never explain it as a buyout. I think that’s a really misleading term to use in this scenario. When you consider a buyout, there’s usually some sort of composed agreement or a concrete offer to offer an advantage in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your recommendations, what are you informing them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme caution. There are no guarantees consisted of in this email. The only thing I can tell you for specific is that if you alter your mind, the agency’s most likely 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 somebody like that may this be an appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most cautious because leaving earlier than intended can have severe effects, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is an excellent deal for people who don’t want to return to the office. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal employees that they have to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the alternative to resign, and referall.us this administration is extremely generously using to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It just – in a manner, it breaks my heart that federal staff members 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 to get folks who work truly tough to resign. I believe 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 people who enjoy their task. They enjoy the objective of the firm. They work hard. And right now, they’re dealing with really hard choices, especially if they’re remote. I indicate, it’s very coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re somebody 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 challenges just to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be sincere, is so extraordinary that I believe a lot of us are still attempting to determine what to do with it. I’m unsure if the offer itself might be challengeable. I think the bigger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not knowledgeable about any authority that exists right now for OPM to order agencies to provide this number of people administrative leave. So I think it is very much perhaps setting the stage for obstacles because I feel OPM has actually vastly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is an employment attorney with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for joining us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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