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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: employment Federal employees have until February 6 to choose whether to willingly leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, notified workers 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 until the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment attorney who represents federal employees as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would actually mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact don’t consider it so much a deal. I believe it’s a request to resign with a vague guarantee that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for as much as 8 months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: employment Some individuals have been utilizing the term buyout to describe what this is because there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would definitely not explain it as a buyout. I think that’s a very misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you think about a buyout, there’s generally some sort of written agreement or a concrete offer to offer a benefit in exchange for waiving particular rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your advice, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is workout extreme caution. There are no assurances consisted of in this e-mail. The only thing I can inform you for certain is that if you change your mind, the company’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and employment you are essentially giving up control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some category of employee who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that might this be an appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most cautious since leaving earlier than intended can have serious effects, potentially, employment 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 people who do not want to return to the workplace. Let me simply play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a recommendation to federal workers that they have to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the choice to resign, and this administration is extremely generously using to pay them for employment eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in such a way, 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 hard to resign. I think it’s trying to pull the wool over a great deal of people’s eyes due to the fact that there are no warranties. And these are people who enjoy their job. They love the objective of the company. They work hard. And right now, they’re dealing with really hard choices, particularly if they’re remote. I mean, it’s very coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who lives in Oregon and has been informed to report to D.C. otherwise we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you expect legal challenges simply to the deal itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be honest, is so extraordinary that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to determine what to do with it. I’m not sure if the deal itself may be . I believe the bigger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not mindful of any authority that exists right now for OPM to buy agencies to provide this number of individuals administrative leave. So I think it is quite potentially setting the phase for obstacles since I feel OPM has actually significantly surpassed 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 a lot for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you a lot for having me here.

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