MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal workers have up until February 6 to choose whether to willingly leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, utahsyardsale.com OPM, 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 allowed to take leave and be paid up until completion of September. Michelle Bercovici is a work attorney who represents federal employees as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM’s postponed resignation program would really mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I really do not consider it so much an offer. I think it’s a request to resign with a vague guarantee that, potentially, you might be kept in administrative leave status for approximately eight months - but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have actually been using the term buyout to explain what this is due to the fact that there seems to be the offer of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would definitely not describe it as a buyout. I believe that’s a really misleading term to utilize in this situation. When you consider a buyout, there’s usually some sort of written arrangement or a concrete deal to supply a benefit in exchange for waiving specific rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If customers ask you for your suggestions, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is workout extreme caution. There are no guarantees included in this email. The only thing I can tell you for certain is that if you alter your mind, the agency’s most likely not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are essentially quiting control over a lot.MARTIN: Is there some category of worker who you think 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 cautious since leaving earlier than intended can have major consequences, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me just play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She informed press reporters that this is a great offer for individuals who don’t desire 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 have to return in - to work. And if they do not, then they have the alternative to resign, securityholes.science and this administration is really kindly offering to pay them for wifidb.science eight months.MARTIN: You’re shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply - in a method, it breaks my heart that federal staff members are being jerked around like this. It sends a signal to me that this return-to-office order remains in bad faith, that it’s created to get folks who work really tough to resign. I think it’s attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of people’s eyes since there are no warranties. And these are individuals who like their job. They like the objective of the company. They work hard. And today, they’re facing extremely hard options, especially if they’re remote. I imply, it’s very coercive.MARTIN: You say it’s coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you’re someone who lives in Oregon and has been told 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 prepare for legal challenges just to the offer itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This deal, to be sincere, is so extraordinary that I believe a great deal of us are still attempting to determine what to do with it. I’m not exactly sure if the deal itself may be challengeable. I believe the larger question is the execution of these terms. I’m not mindful of any authority that exists today for OPM to order firms to offer this variety of people administrative leave. So I believe it is really much potentially setting the phase for challenges due to the fact that I has actually vastly 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 a lot for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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