Washington – On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the deadline for staff management for federal employees to accept the “defunct waiver” offer from Trump administration.
The Judge of the North -American District, George O’Toole, prevented the agency from implementing the program term for a brief audience held before federal workers had to notify the OPM if they would accept or reject the offer to separate -They of their positions.
A lawyer at the Department of Justice said that OPM would give a notice to federal employees that the term was stopped waiting for legal procedures. An OPM official told CBS News that agencies “will still be able to process resignations until this new period ordered by courts”.
The staff management office sent a email Last week with the “Fork on the road” subject offered more than 2 million federal employees “Differentiated resignation.” Within the framework of the program, they could give up their positions and retain their remuneration and benefits until September 30. The federal workers who agreed to resign would also be exempt from Work requirements in person Until September, he said the email.
The employees previously had until February 6 to accept or reject the offer. The program is not available to members of the army, U.S. Postal Service employees or those who are related to national immigration and security, according to OPM.
For those who chose to maintain their positions, the message of the OPM said that the Trump administration could not give “complete guarantee about the certainty of your position or agency”. He also stated that “most federal agencies are likely to be reduced through current restructuring, realization and reductions” as part of Mr. Trump’s efforts to reform the federal labor force.
In a list From “most frequently asked questions” about the supply, the agency said that workers who accept the proposed purchase are not expected to work in their government work during the period of deferred resignation and that they would be allowed to obtain a second job.
About 40,000 federal workers – or about 2% of government labor – have accepted the agreement, according to the white house secretary, Karoline Leavitt. But the White House hopes that this number will increase.
Days after Opm presented their offer, a group of four unions representing more than 800,000 federal employees sued the agency and its acting director, Charles Ezell, arguing the so -called Fork Directive, as they call it The unions, violates the federal law.
“If these employees leave or are forced to mass, the country will suffer a dangerous punch,” the unions said in their complaint. “First, the Government will lose experience in the fields and complex programs that Congress has directed, by the Statute, the executive to be faithfully implemented. The Government will have fewer qualified employees to execute the legally obliged tasks that are still remaining. .
They said that funding for federal agencies will expire on March 14 and that there is no appropriation in Congress to cover the salaries of government workers after that date.
They asked the judge to prevent the OPM implement the term of February 6.
The Email Subject line is the same as an email from 2022 that billionaire Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees, the social media platform that he bought that year and renamed X. La White House has said that Musk works in the Trump administration as a “Special Government Employee” Directing the White House Efficiency of the Government Department, Or DOGE, which President Trump established with the aim of reducing expenses and restructuring federal agencies.
The proposed purchase offered by the Trump administration has proposed concerns from labor lawyers, as components are unclear and have no guarantees, they told CBS News. It is also not clear that the Trump administration has the authority to create this program, as the unions have alleged in their legal challenge.
A dozen State General Lawyers have also warned federal employees against accepting what they said is a “misleading” offer to resign.
The deferred resignation program is one of the various initiatives made to Mr. Trump since returning to the White House, which aims to reduce the size of the federal government. The president tidy Millions of federal workers to return to the full -time office and agencies directed to end remote working agreements.
His administration has also aimed at the United States Agency for International Developmentorusid, placing almost all of their staff In leave of absence and ordering their missions abroad to go out.
contributed to this report.