As the deadline looms for tens of thousands of federal employees to decide whether to take the deferred resignation offer from the Trump administration, Camilla McKinney, an attorney specializing in employment law, told WTOP there are a number of things they want to consider before making a move.
Noting that the offer being made by the Trump administration is unprecedented, McKinney brought up a more typical mechanism to trim the workforce.
McKinney said in the case of reductions in force, or RIFs, “there are certain regulations” that the government has to follow.
“Also, if you are spending taxpayer dollars, it has to be authorized,” she added.
She said there are a number of questions employees and attorneys alike will have, like, “What’s the authorization for this and what’s the funding for the buyout?”
There are also questions about employee privacy, McKinney said, “in terms of collecting information from these employees directly.”
McKinney said a few things make the current situation involving the personnel actions unique.
One, she told WTOP, is that federal employees work under a system designed to protect against political pressure. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) is intended to protect against political influence on the job.
Once loyalty becomes part of the consideration of government workers, McKinney said, “Then you no longer potentially have a workforce that’s doing the job for Americans,” but instead, decisions could be made to follow a particular...
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