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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal employees have up until February 6 to choose whether to willingly leave their tasks. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed workers on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday – that’s less than a week from now – most will be enabled to depart and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal workers as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s postponed would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually don’t consider it so much a deal. I believe it’s a demand to resign with an unclear pledge that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for employment up to eight months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have been using the term buyout to describe what this is since there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for approximately 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not explain it as a buyout. I think that’s an extremely misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you consider a buyout, there’s normally some sort of written agreement or a concrete deal to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for employment your guidance, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme care. There are no assurances consisted of in this email. The only thing I can tell you for employment particular is that if you change your mind, the agency’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Exists some classification of employee who you think 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 careful due to the fact that leaving earlier than planned can have serious consequences, employment potentially, 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 an excellent deal for people who do not want to return to the office. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a recommendation to federal employees that they have to return in – to work. And if they don’t, then they have the option to resign, and this administration is really generously offering to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It just – in such a way, it breaks my heart that federal workers are being jerked around like this. It sends out a signal to me that this return-to-office order is in bad faith, that it’s developed to get folks who work actually difficult to resign. I believe it’s attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of individuals’s eyes due to the fact that there are no guarantees. And employment these are individuals who enjoy their job. They love the objective of the agency. They work hard. And right now, they’re dealing with extremely difficult choices, employment specifically if they’re remote. I suggest, it’s really coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who resides in Oregon and has been told to report to D.C. or else we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you prepare for legal difficulties just to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be honest, is so extraordinary that I think a lot of us are still trying to find out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the offer itself might be challengeable. I think the larger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not mindful of any authority that exists right now for OPM to order companies to offer this variety of individuals administrative leave. So I believe it is very much possibly setting the phase for challenges because I feel OPM has vastly 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 a lot for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: employment Thank you a lot for having me here.

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