Computerworks

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  • Founded Date April 22, 1960
  • Sectors General Labour
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Employment Lawyer Discusses what Trump Offer to Federal Employees to Resign Would Do

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal employees have till February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their tasks. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, notified workers 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 till completion of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment attorney who represents federal staff members as a big part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would actually mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I really don’t consider it so much a deal. I think it’s a request to resign with an unclear promise that, potentially, you might be kept in administrative leave status for approximately eight months – however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is since there appears to be the offer of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would definitely not explain it as a buyout. I believe that’s a really deceptive term to use in this scenario. When you think about a buyout, job there’s generally some sort of composed contract or a concrete deal to supply a benefit in exchange for waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your guidance, job what are you informing them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is exercise extreme caution. There are no assurances consisted of in this email. The only thing I can inform you for specific is that if you alter 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: Is there some category of staff member who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that might this be an appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most careful due to the fact that leaving earlier than planned can have severe repercussions, potentially, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told press reporters that this is a bargain for job people who do not wish to go back to the office. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a recommendation to federal employees that they need to return in – to work. And if they do not, then they have the option to resign, and job this administration is very kindly offering to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply – in a manner, it breaks my heart that members 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 developed to get folks who work really hard to resign. I think it’s attempting to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes because there are no assurances. And these are people who enjoy their job. They enjoy the objective of the firm. They strive. And today, they’re facing really difficult choices, particularly if they’re remote. I imply, it’s really coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, 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 expect legal challenges simply to the deal itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be truthful, is so unprecedented that I think a great deal of us are still trying to find out what to do with it. I’m uncertain if the offer itself might be challengeable. I believe the bigger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not knowledgeable about any authority that exists today for OPM to purchase companies to give this variety of people administrative leave. So I think it is very much possibly setting the stage for obstacles because I feel OPM has actually vastly surpassed 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 signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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