CNN
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The offer of President Donald Trump to federal employees to resign now and charge until September stunned the workers who received it, angry at some, confusing many and raising doubts about whether it is even legal.
When an employee of the US Department of Agriculture based in Mississippi received the deferred resignation offer on Tuesday, he read it, he laughed because he simply “made no sense” and then erased her.
“I invested my whole life in the federal government,” said the employee, who also spent time in the army. “I’m not going to throw everything out of board.”
Throughout the United States, several federal workers who talked to CNN said they were not willing to sacrifice benefits -including health and retirement benefits and the forgiveness of student loans -not to mention their careers. They asked that their names not be revealed for fear of reprisals.
Federal workers unions did not take long to lash out at the postponed resignation offer, stressing that it was not a liquidation and that the government may not be able to carry it out.
“Employees should not take the program as it is,” the American Federation of Government employees, the largest Federal Workers Union, in a statement with frequent questions about the offer on Wednesday. The communications of the Personnel Management Office (OPM) are “plagued with inconsistencies and uncertainties. Nor is it clear if the OPM has legal authority to support the program or its supposed benefits, and the eligibility criteria are diffuse. ”
The union warned that the offer does not contain guarantees that employees whose resignations are accepted “receive the benefits that the program intends to offer.” And he pointed out that the Federal Government is only financed until mid -March, so the Trump administration cannot make payment promises further until Congress approves an expense bill.
The negative reactions caused Trump’s government to send another email to employees on Friday, this time from their individual agencies. It was reinforced, in underlined text, that the offer is “valid, legal and will be honored by” the respective departments. In addition, those who accept the offer “will not be subject to a reduction of template or other premature separation”, will not have to work during the period of approximately eight months (except for rare exceptions) and may accept a non -governmental job during that time.
The vice -secretary of the White House for policies, Stephen Miller, said, without providing evidence, that “a significant number of federal workers have accepted the offer” during a talk with journalists in the White House on Friday.
But workers interviewed by CNN are not willing to leave the ship.
The employee of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, who said that accepting the offer is discarded, was very offended by the fact that the EPM email made reference to the fact that federal employees should be “loyal”.
“When I raised my right hand a long time ago, I swore to defend the Constitution,” he told CNN. “So I’m not loyal to anyone. I am loyal to my country. ”
The email of the OPM, which contained the issue “fork on the road”, had many similarities with an email that X, then called Twitter, sent to its employees days after Elon Musk took care of the company. Musk now directs the Trump government efficiency department, one of whose mandates is to reduce the federal template.
The offer occurred at a time when Trump intends .
Around 2.4 million people work for the federal government, not including postal workers, which are not eligible for the package. Military personnel and those who occupy posts related to the application of national immigration and security laws, among others, are also excluded.
Those who meet the requirements will have to decide before February 6.
An employee of the US Department of Agriculture, next to retire, said he will not accept Trump’s incentive and who also does not expect anyone else to do it in his Illinois local office.
“They are trying to change everything overnight,” said the employee. “They are trying to reinvent the government, and I don’t think they can do it.”
“I retire at 60 years. I am my 25 years. I have acquired rights. I will not go anywhere, ”he added.
The Trump administration is also trying to take measures against federal employees working from home or hybrid functions, instead of in their full -time offices.
But much of the federal workforce is outside the capital of the nation, and Trump’s offer was received with confusion and skepticism in many of those offices. While some workers said it was not clear in the original email if they would have to continue working until September, a statement at the OPM site said that employees would not be expected to work and were encouraged to find jobs in the private sector .
“We invite you to stay at home and relax or travel to the destination of your dreams. What you want, ”said the frequently asked questions section.
Others did not like the ominous warning of the email of the OPM that, if they choose to stay, “we cannot give full guarantees about the certainty of your position or agency.” They also irritated the section that encourages workers to move from “lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector” to boost US prosperity.
An employee of the Labor Department told CNN that they initially considered the offer, but said that “as time passes, more skepticism grows,” partly due to its doubts that the Trump administration meets the eight months of payment that he offered.
A worker from the Department of Veterans Affairs said the Trump administration offer had been counterproductive.
“Before today, I didn’t hear anything except that people wanted to leave,” said the worker one day after receiving the offer. “Today people are determined to stay.”
The initial renunciation offer aroused doubts among some who said that the emails that had lately received from the OPM did not seem legitimate. Some thought that the initial test emails that the OPM sent last week were phishing scams, which led them to ask their managers what to do.
Some federal workers said that Trump changes will uproot their lives and that the offer decreases the value of work that they believe helps Americans.
An internal tax service worker told CNN that the offer enraged them, although some of his colleagues have expressed interest in it.
“Do you think we are so stupid to do so?” Said the employee, who intends to remain in the federal government until his retirement, for which he is still missing years. “They will have to say goodbye.”
The worker, who lives in the south with his spouse and a young son, said they find it gratifying to help people.
“I really love it, especially when I am on the phone with someone solving their problems and (the taxpayer is) receiving money that he has desperately trying to get on his own,” said the employee of the Internal Revenue Service.
Some workers considered the email of the OPM disturbing. An employee of the Interior Department – who said that his division already has little personal and has had to use contractors, who charge more – could not sleep on Tuesday night after receiving the deferred resignation package.
“It is intimidation. It’s harassment, ”said the worker, who lives in Oklahoma. “It is questioning all hard work and the importance of what we do. Being treated like this is not human or professional. ”
The OPM email was written in a manner designed to coerce federal employees to resign, said Goreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury employees union (NTEU), for CNN in an interview.
“It was written in a very negative tone, threateningly,” he said. “It didn’t provide any clarity about what was offered.”
After the OPM announced the offer, the union sent an urgent notice to its affiliates, “vigorously” not to resign. The NTU wanted to reassure employees telling them they could choose, Greenwald said.
“There were no answers in that document, so we had to give that information to our affiliates to protect them,” he told CNN.
In addition, a massive exodus of federal employees “would be catastrophic for the federal government and the services on which Americans depend every day,” said Greenwald.
Other federal employee unions had similar messages for their members, all questioning the legality of the offer.
“Unlike the structured programs that the federal government offered in the past to reduce the number of federal employees, this maneuver aims Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The offer is a fear tactic designed to press federal workers to resign while promising, under an illegal and inapplicable agreement, pay them until October.”
(Tagstotranslate) Federal Employees (T) Donald Trump
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