MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have until February 6 to choose whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed employees 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 depart and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is an employment lawyer who represents federal workers as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her analysis about what OPM’s delayed resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I actually do not consider it a lot an offer. I think it’s a demand to resign with a vague guarantee that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for as much as 8 months - but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some people have actually been using the term buyout to explain what this is because there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for approximately 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s an extremely misleading term to use in this circumstance. When you consider a buyout, there’s typically some sort of written agreement or a concrete deal to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your recommendations, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we tell them is workout extreme caution. There are no warranties consisted of in this email. The only thing I can inform you for certain is that if you alter your mind, the company’s probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some classification of staff member who you think this might benefit? Maybe they’re close to retirement. Is someone like that may this be an ?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement need to be the most careful due to the fact that leaving earlier than planned can have severe repercussions, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She informed press reporters that this is a bargain for individuals who do not wish to return to the workplace. Let me simply play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal workers 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 eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply - in such a way, 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 designed to get folks who work really tough to resign. I believe it’s trying to pull the wool over a lot of individuals’s eyes due to the fact that there are no guarantees. And these are people who love their job. They enjoy the mission of the firm. They strive. And today, they’re facing very tough choices, especially if they’re remote. I mean, it’s very coercive.MARTIN: You state it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, pattern-wiki.win if you’re someone who lives in Oregon and has been informed to report to D.C. or else we’re going to fire you, they might feel that they have no option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you prepare for legal obstacles simply to the offer itself? And securityholes.science if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I think a great deal of us are still trying to find out what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the deal 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 quite perhaps setting the stage for challenges because I feel OPM has significantly surpassed their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work legal representative with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you a lot for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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