(The Guardian) 75,000 federal workers sign up for Trump's buyout as judge clears path for workforce cuts
About 75,000 federal workers accepted the offer to quit in return for being paid until 30 September, according to McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the office of personnel management, Associated Press reports.
She said the deferred resignation program “provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures,” and it was now closed to additional workers.
A federal judge on Wednesday removed a key legal hurdle stalling president Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce. The Boston-based judge’s order in the challenge filed by a group of labor unions was a significant legal victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.
American Federation of Government Employees National president Everett Kelley said in a statement that the union’s lawyers are assessing the next steps. -- Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it’s not the end of that fight. Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program.
She said the union continues to maintain that it is illegal to force citizens to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about “whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk.”
In a “factsheet” issued by the White House earlier this week, the Trump administration claimed that “excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million” people, and that “only 6% of federal workers report to work in-person on a full-time basis.”
About 75,000 federal workers accepted the offer to quit in return for being paid until 30 September, according to McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the office of personnel management, Associated Press reports.
She said the deferred resignation program “provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures,” and it was now closed to additional workers.
A federal judge on Wednesday removed a key legal hurdle stalling president Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce. The Boston-based judge’s order in the challenge filed by a group of labor unions was a significant legal victory for the Republican president after a string of courtroom setbacks.
American Federation of Government Employees National president Everett Kelley said in a statement that the union’s lawyers are assessing the next steps. -- Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants. But it’s not the end of that fight. Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program.
She said the union continues to maintain that it is illegal to force citizens to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about “whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk.”
In a “factsheet” issued by the White House earlier this week, the Trump administration claimed that “excluding active-duty military and Postal Service employees, the federal workforce exceeds 2.4 million” people, and that “only 6% of federal workers report to work in-person on a full-time basis.”
