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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 choose whether to voluntarily 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 enabled to take leave and be paid up until the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal staff members as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would actually mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually don’t consider it so much a deal. I believe it’s a demand to resign with a vague pledge that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for as much as eight months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have been using the term buyout to describe 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 definitely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s a really deceptive term to use in this situation. When you think about a buyout, there’s typically some sort of written agreement or a concrete offer to provide an advantage in exchange for waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your guidance, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme caution. There are no warranties consisted of in this email. The only thing I can inform you for certain is that if you alter your mind, the company’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Exists some classification of worker who you believe 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 cautious due to the fact that leaving earlier than planned can have severe consequences, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She informed that this is a great deal 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 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 very kindly using 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 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 really hard to resign. I believe it’s trying to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes because there are no warranties. And these are people who enjoy their task. They enjoy the objective of the company. They strive. And today, they’re facing very hard choices, specifically if they’re remote. I mean, it’s really 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. otherwise we’re going to fire you, referall.us they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal challenges simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, somalibidders.com to be truthful, is so extraordinary that I think a great deal of us are still attempting to determine what to do with it. I’m not sure if the deal itself might be challengeable. I think the bigger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not familiar with any authority that exists right now for OPM to order agencies to offer this variety of individuals administrative leave. So I believe it is extremely much perhaps setting the stage for obstacles because I feel OPM has actually greatly exceeded 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 joining us.BERCOVICI: Thank you a lot for having me here.

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