A federal judge said Monday that the Trump administration’s deferred resignation plan will be suspended until he ruled its legality, ahead of the deadline for about 2 million federal workers to accept smoking cessation.
Federal officials set a deadline of 11:59 pm on Monday to bring employees into resignation plans, “Fork on the Road,” part of an initiative led by Elon Musk , to significantly reduce the size of the federal government. According to the Trump administration, federal workers who accept the offer will receive their paycheck in September.
George A. Otoole Jr. of the Massachusetts District Judge George A. Otoole Jr. adjusts its deadline so that employees can accept the offer.
It is not clear when Judge O’Toole will rule.
“The plan has not been blocked or cancelled,” the agency wrote in a social media post last week. “The government will respect the offer to defer a resignation.”
The Trump administration said more than 65,000 federal workers accepted the offer to resign, accounting for less than 3% of all 2.3 million federal workers, excluding the military and the Post Office. Mr. Musk, who led the Trump administration’s efforts to cut federal government, circulated estimates that the proposal could attract 5% to 10% of the federal labor force to leave.
About 150,000 federal workers (i.e. 7%) leave the government voluntarily every year.
Liberal nonprofit democracy forward and government unions represent thousands of federal workers – the United States Government Employees Federation; the United States National, County and Municipal Employees; the National Association of Government Employees has sued to stop resigning plans. They believe this is illegal, partly because Congress has not yet allocated funds to compensate workers the Trump administration promised to pay.
Congress faces a deadline for a new spending agreement in mid-March, which could pay any potential funds to pay for resigning federal workers.
Judge O’Toole last week directed lawyers representing the Trump administration to contact employees who received the offer and informed them that the plan was suspended. The initial deadline for 11:59 p.m. last Thursday was postponed.
Democratic advance lawyer Elena Goldstein told Judge O’Toole on Monday that the Trump administration’s resignation plan was arbitrary and recommended putting pressure on federal workers without collective bargaining rights. She believes the plan is a pretense that Mr. Musk fires the people and fills the ranks of government agencies with colleagues.
“It is issued in a general way, without analyzing which positions are no longer needed or are crucial to the government,” she said, adding that the federal government could continue to change its offer terms to the last minute. She said personnel officials appear to be “coming back to make up for this as they come in.”
Trump administration lawyer Eric Hamilton defended the plan, saying President Trump’s vow to reshape the federal government’s oath may be “disappointment” for agent employees, but the resignation proposal is “humane cross-section ”, which temporarily retains wages and benefits.
Hamilton said once the postponement resignation program is over, the federal personnel office needs to undergo a broader restructuring and needs to eventually know who wants to participate.
“Keep open only injecting more uncertainty,” he said.
Trump administration officials believe concerns about the legitimacy of the plan are “misplaced” and the separation agreement is legally binding.
“Union leaders and politicians told federal workers that rejecting the proposal is seriously harming them,” McLaurine Pinover, spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, said in a statement last week. “It’s a rare thing.” , generous opportunity.”
The vague conditions of the offer and its uncertain legitimacy have caused general chaos in the federal labor force. The Social Security Bureau’s Human Resources Office sent a sample agreement to employees, which stated that failures in federal funds would not affect transactions. But the agreement also states that the government’s obligations “abide by the availability of grants.”
Some federal workers, including those with probation conditions who may be fired soon, may find the program attractive, leading them to weigh whether the deal will provide some financial security.
Judge O’Toole’s hearing on Monday was the latest turn of the Trump administration’s actions aimed at reducing and reducing the federal workforce. Last weekend, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency staff were ordered to stay at home and stop almost all work, including oversight of the bank, as Mr. Musk and a team of young assistants hunted big cuts.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have faced a series of legal setbacks in recent days. On Monday, a federal judge said the White House violated his order to release billions of dollars in federal grants.
A federal judge in New York restricted Musk’s team’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment and data system. A New Hampshire judge issued an injunction on Monday blocking Mr. Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, a third federal judge did so.
On Friday, just before the U.S. International Development Agency, it will be paid or fired, and the court issued an interim order allowing employees who have already enjoyed administrative leave to resume administrative leave until the end of this Friday.
