White House offers seven months’ salary to all federal employees who resign over in-person work directiveAll federal employees will be required to return to in-person work or resign by next week, according to a memo from the office of personnel management obtained by the Guardian.
The form letter, sent by email on Tuesday evening, also includes a “deferred resignation letter” for federal employees to return before 6 February if they wish to resign and take a buyout worth seven months of salary instead of serving in a “reformed federal workforce”.
The memo adds that the “majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.”
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 800,000 federal and DC government workers, denounced the move in a statement.
“This offer should not be viewed as voluntary,” Kelley said. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”
Kelley also warned, ominously: “Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”