MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Federal employees have until February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed workers 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 take leave and be paid until the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal employees as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM's deferred resignation program would actually mean.
MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually don't consider it so much an offer. I think it's a request to resign with a vague promise that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for up to eight months - but no guarantees.
MARTIN: Some people have been using the term buyout to describe what this is because there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for up to eight months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?
BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not describe it as a buyout. I think that's a very misleading term to use in this situation. When you think of a buyout, there's usually some sort of written agreement or a concrete offer to provide a benefit in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.
MARTIN: If clients ask you for your advice, what are you telling them?
BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is exercise extreme caution. There are no guarantees contained in this email. The only thing I can tell you for certain is that if you change your mind, the agency's probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially giving up control over a lot.
MARTIN: Is there some category of employee 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 careful because leaving earlier than intended can have serious consequences, potentially, on their benefits.
MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is a good deal for people who don't want to return to the office. Let me just play it.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal workers that they have to return in - to work. And if they don't, then they have the option to resign, and this administration is very generously offering to pay them for eight months.
MARTIN: You're shaking your head no.
BERCOVICI: It just - in a way, 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 think it's trying to pull the wool over a lot of people's eyes because there are no guarantees. And these are people who love their job. They love the mission of the agency. They work hard. And right now, they're facing very hard choices, especially if they're remote. I mean, it's very 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 choice than to take this option.
MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal challenges just to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?
BERCOVICI: This offer, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I think a lot of us are still trying to figure out what to do with it. I'm not sure if the offer itself may be challengeable. I think the bigger question is the execution of these terms. I'm not aware of any authority that exists right now for OPM to order agencies to give this number of people administrative leave. So I think it is very much possibly setting the stage for challenges because I feel OPM has vastly exceeded their authority.
MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is an employment lawyer with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for joining us.
BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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