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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal workers have up 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 permitted to take leave and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal staff members as a large part of her practice, referall.us so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s postponed resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I really do not consider it a lot a deal. I think it’s a demand to resign with an unclear pledge that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for as much as 8 months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have actually been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is since there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never describe it as a buyout. I think that’s a really misleading term to use in this circumstance. When you consider a buyout, there’s usually some sort of composed arrangement or a concrete deal to provide a benefit in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your suggestions, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is exercise severe care. There are no guarantees consisted of in this email. The only thing I can inform you for specific is that if you change your mind, the company’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially providing 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 attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most mindful due to the fact that leaving earlier than planned can have major consequences, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is a bargain for people who do not wish to go back to the workplace. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a recommendation to federal workers that they need to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the alternative to resign, and this administration is extremely generously using to pay them for 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 a signal to me that this return-to-office order is in bad faith, that it’s designed to get folks who work actually tough to resign. I think it’s trying to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes due to the fact that there are no guarantees. And these are individuals who enjoy their job. They enjoy the mission of the agency. They work hard. And right now, they’re facing very hard options, particularly if they’re remote. I suggest, it’s extremely coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re somebody 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: Do you anticipate legal obstacles just to the deal itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to find out what to do with it. I’m uncertain if the offer itself may be challengeable. I think the larger question is the execution of these terms. I’m not familiar with any that exists right now for OPM to order agencies to offer this variety of people administrative leave. So I think it is quite possibly setting the stage for obstacles due to the fact that I feel OPM has actually greatly surpassed 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 signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you a lot for having me here.

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