MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have till February 6 to decide whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, employment notified workers on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday - that’s less than a week from now - most will be permitted to take leave and be paid up until completion of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment attorney who represents federal staff members as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact don’t consider it a lot a deal. I believe it’s a request to resign with an unclear pledge that, potentially, you could be kept in administrative leave status for approximately 8 months - however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have actually been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is due to the fact that there appears to be the deal of administrative leave for approximately 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s a really misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you think about a buyout, there’s typically some sort of written contract or a concrete deal to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving particular rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: employment If customers ask you for your advice, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme care. There are no warranties consisted of in this email. The only thing I can inform you for particular is that if you alter your mind, the agency’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some classification of worker who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that might this be an appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most careful since leaving earlier than planned can have major effects, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told reporters that this is a good offer for people who do not wish to go back to the workplace. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a tip to federal employees that they need 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 8 months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply - in a manner, it breaks my heart that federal workers are being jerked around like this. It sends out a signal to me that this return-to-office order is in bad faith, that it’s created to get folks who work truly hard to resign. I believe it’s trying to pull the wool over a great deal of people’s eyes since there are no assurances. And these are people who love their task. They love the of the firm. They strive. And right now, they’re dealing with very tough options, particularly if they’re remote. I imply, it’s extremely coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who lives in Oregon and employment has been informed to report to D.C. otherwise we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no choice than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal obstacles simply to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I believe a great deal of us are still attempting to find out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the offer itself might be challengeable. I think the larger concern is the execution of these terms. I’m not knowledgeable about any authority that exists right now for OPM to purchase agencies to offer this variety of people administrative leave. So I think it is quite potentially setting the stage for obstacles due to the fact that I feel OPM has actually greatly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is an employment legal representative 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.

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