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

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have 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 allowed to depart and be paid up until the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is a work attorney who represents federal staff members as a big part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s postponed resignation program would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact do not consider it a lot an offer. I believe it’s a demand to resign with a vague pledge that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for up to 8 months – but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have actually been using the term buyout to explain what this is because there appears to be the deal of administrative leave for approximately eight months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never explain it as a buyout. I think that’s a really misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you consider a buyout, there’s generally some sort of written arrangement or a concrete deal to provide an advantage in exchange for waiving particular rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your guidance, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is workout severe caution. There are no guarantees included in this email. The only thing I can tell you for certain is that if you alter your mind, the company’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically providing up control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some classification of staff member 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 need to be the most cautious since leaving earlier than meant can have serious effects, possibly, 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 offer for individuals who do not want to return to the office. Let me just 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 very kindly using to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re your head no.BERCOVICI: It just – 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 is in bad faith, that it’s created to get folks who work really hard to resign. I believe it’s attempting to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes since there are no guarantees. And these are people who enjoy their task. They love the objective of the firm. They work hard. And today, they’re dealing with really hard options, particularly if they’re remote. I imply, it’s extremely coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, somalibidders.com if you’re someone who lives 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 option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal obstacles simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, referall.us to be sincere, 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 deal itself may be challengeable. I think the larger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not familiar with any authority that exists today for OPM to buy agencies to provide this number of people administrative leave. So I think it is really much possibly setting the phase for challenges due to the fact that I feel OPM has vastly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is an employment 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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