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 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 permitted to take leave and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment attorney who represents federal staff members as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s postponed resignation program would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact do not consider it a lot a deal. I believe it’s a request to resign with an unclear guarantee that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for as much as 8 months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have actually been utilizing the term buyout to describe what this is because there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not explain it as a buyout. I believe that’s a very misleading term to utilize in this situation. When you think of a buyout, there’s usually some sort of composed arrangement or a concrete deal to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your recommendations, what are you informing them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is exercise extreme caution. There are no guarantees contained in this e-mail. The only thing I can inform you for specific is that if you change your mind, the firm’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically giving up control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some category of staff member who you think this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is somebody like that may this be an attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most careful since leaving earlier than planned can have major consequences, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told press reporters that this is a good offer for people who do not desire to return to the office. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is an idea to federal employees that they have to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the alternative to resign, and this administration is really kindly offering to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in a manner, it breaks my heart that federal employees are being jerked around like this. It sends a signal to me that this return-to-office order is in bad faith, that it’s created to get folks who work really hard to resign. I think it’s attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of people’s eyes since there are no warranties. And these are people who like their job. They like the objective of the agency. They strive. And today, they’re facing really tough choices, job especially if they’re remote. I mean, it’s really coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who resides in Oregon and has been told 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: job Do you prepare for legal obstacles just to the deal itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be truthful, is so extraordinary that I believe a great deal of us are still trying to find out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the deal itself might be challengeable. I think the larger question is the execution of these terms. I’m not mindful of any authority that exists today for OPM to order companies to give this variety of individuals administrative leave. So I believe it is very much potentially setting the phase for challenges since I feel OPM has vastly surpassed their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work lawyer with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, job D.C. Thank you a lot for joining us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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