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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have till February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, 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 till 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 interpretation about what OPM’s deferred resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: employment I in fact do not consider it so much a deal. I think it’s a demand to resign with an unclear guarantee that, potentially, you might be kept in administrative leave status for up to 8 months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is because there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for as much as eight months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never explain it as a buyout. I think that’s a very misleading term to use in this scenario. When you think of a buyout, there’s typically some sort of written arrangement or a concrete offer to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving certain 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 exercise severe care. There are no assurances consisted of in this e-mail. The only thing I can tell you for specific is that if you alter your mind, the company’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically 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 appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most mindful since leaving earlier than meant can have serious repercussions, possibly, 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 great offer for people who don’t wish to go back to the office. Let me simply play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal employees that they need to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the alternative to resign, and this administration is really kindly providing to pay them for employment eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in 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 remains in bad faith, that it’s designed to get folks who work truly difficult to resign. I think it’s attempting to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes since there are no guarantees. And these are individuals who love their task. They love the objective of the firm. They strive. And today, they’re dealing with very tough choices, specifically if they’re remote. I mean, it’s really coercive.MARTIN: employment You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re somebody who lives in Oregon and employment has been informed to report to D.C. otherwise we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you expect legal difficulties simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be truthful, is so extraordinary that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to figure out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the deal itself may be challengeable. I believe the bigger question is the execution of these terms. I’m not familiar with any authority that exists today for OPM to buy firms to give this variety of people administrative leave. So I believe it is quite potentially setting the phase for challenges since I feel OPM has actually vastly surpassed their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work lawyer with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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