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 voluntarily leave their jobs.
The U.S.
Office of Personnel Management, OPM, job 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 permitted to depart and be paid till completion of September.
Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal employees as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s postponed resignation program would actually mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually do not consider it so much a deal. I believe it’s a request to resign with an unclear pledge that, job possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for approximately eight months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have actually been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is since there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would definitely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s an extremely deceptive term to use in this scenario. When you think about a buyout, there’s generally some sort of composed agreement or a concrete offer to provide a benefit in exchange for waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your recommendations, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise severe caution. There are no assurances included in this email. The only thing I can inform you for certain is that if you change your mind, the firm’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some classification 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 cautious since leaving earlier than planned can have serious repercussions, potentially, job on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told press reporters that this is a good offer for individuals who don’t want to go back to the office. Let me simply play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return in – to work. And if they do not, 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 out a signal to me that this return-to-office order remains in bad faith, that it’s designed to get folks who work actually difficult to resign. I believe it’s to pull the wool over a great deal of individuals’s eyes due to the fact that there are no guarantees. And these are people who enjoy their job. They enjoy the objective of the company. They work hard. And today, they’re facing really tough choices, especially if they’re remote. I indicate, it’s extremely coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who resides in Oregon and has been informed to report to D.C. or else we’re going to fire you, job they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you expect legal challenges just to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be sincere, is so unmatched that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to determine what to do with it. I’m unsure if the deal itself might be challengeable. I think the larger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not knowledgeable about any authority that exists today for OPM to buy companies to give this number of people administrative leave. So I believe it is very much potentially setting the phase for challenges since I feel OPM has 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 a lot for having me here.
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