Federal employees claim in lawsuit ‘deferred resignation’ program is illegal because Congress has not approved it. A federal judge will consider the Trump administration’s offer of mass buyouts for government workers on Monday, after extending a deadline last week for more than two million federal employees to decide whether to accept the offer. US district judge George O’Toole will hear arguments in Boston in a lawsuit brought by federal workers’ unions which claim the administration’s “deferred resignation” program is illegal because it has not been authorized by Congress.
The lawsuit argues that the buyout offer is an “arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum” to force the resignation of government workers under the “threat of mass termination”. Last week, the judge temporarily paused a Thursday midnight deadline for workers to accept the buyout, giving time for legal briefs to be filed before a hearing on Monday. The Trump administration said it has offered to nearly all of the roughly 2 million civilian federal workers the opportunity to leave their jobs and receive eight months’ severance pay and benefits, or to stay in their positions and agree to new reforms, including a requirement to work in the office five days a week.
In an email titled “Fork in the road”, the US office of personnel management (OPM) also warned that those who chose to stay would be subject to “enhanced standards of conduct” and might face potential layoffs or reassignment. Since the email was sent on 29 January, 65,000 workers have chosen to take the deferred resignation offer, according to a White House official. Democrats and union leaders have advised federal workers not to accept the offer amid concerns about its legality and the administration’s ability to fulfill its side of the deal. “It’s a scam and not a buyout,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
A coalition of Democratic attorneys general, led by New York attorney general Letitia James, warned federal employees that the buyout offer was “misleading”. “President Trump’s so-called buyout offers are nothing more than the latest attack on federal workers and the services they provide,” James wrote in a statement. “These supposed offers are not guaranteed.”. Employees at the education department have been warned that those who accept the buyout could see their paychecks stop at any time and workers would not have any recourse.
