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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal employees have up until February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their tasks. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed 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 until completion of September. Michelle Bercovici is an who represents federal staff members as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s deferred resignation program would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually don’t consider it so much a deal. I believe it’s a request to resign with a vague promise that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for approximately 8 months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have been using the term buyout to describe what this is because there appears 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 definitely not explain it as a buyout. I believe that’s a very misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you think about a buyout, there’s usually some sort of composed agreement or a concrete offer to provide an advantage in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your guidance, what are you informing 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 specific 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 worker who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is somebody like that might this be an attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most mindful due to the fact that leaving earlier than meant can have serious repercussions, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is an excellent 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 need to return in – to work. And if they don’t, then they have the choice to resign, job and this administration is really generously offering to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in a method, it breaks my heart that federal staff members 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 truly hard to resign. I believe it’s attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of individuals’s eyes since there are no assurances. And these are individuals who enjoy their job. They love the mission of the agency. They work hard. And right now, they’re facing extremely difficult choices, specifically if they’re remote. I indicate, job it’s extremely coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re somebody who resides in Oregon and has been told to report to D.C. or job else we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you expect legal obstacles simply to the deal itself? And job if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I think a great deal of us are still trying to figure out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the offer itself might be challengeable. I believe 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 variety of people administrative leave. So I think it is quite perhaps setting the stage for obstacles because I feel OPM has actually significantly exceeded 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 joining us.BERCOVICI: Thank you a lot for having me here.

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