Key points
- A judge in US has removed legal hurdles stalling Trump’s plan to downsize workforce
- Around 75,000 workers accepted the offer to quit: McLaurine Pinover
- Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity: Kelley
WASHINGTON: A judge in the United States (US) has removed a key legal hurdle stalling President Donald Trump’s plan to downsize the federal workforce with a deferred resignation program.
According to the Associated Press (AP), the Boston-based judge’s order in the challenge filed by a group of labour unions was a significant legal victory for Trump following a string of courtroom setbacks.
“This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Another group of unions filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC late Wednesday, though its potential impacts were not immediately clear, according to AP.
Around 75,000 federal workers accepted the offer to quit in return for being paid until September 30, according to McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management. She said the deferred resignation programme “provides generous benefits so federal workers can plan for their futures,” and it was now closed to additional workers.
The next steps
In a statement, American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said that the union’s lawyers are evaluating the next steps.
“Today’s ruling is a setback in the fight for dignity and fairness for public servants,” Kelley said. “But it’s not the end of that fight. Importantly, this decision did not address the underlying lawfulness of the program.”
The union continues to maintain that it is illegal to force American nationals to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about “whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk,” AP cited the statement as saying.
Resignation programme
US District Judge George O’Toole Jr in Boston found that the unions were not directly affected, so they didn’t have legal standing to challenge the program, commonly described as a buyout. O’Toole was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
The deferred resignation program has been spearheaded by Elon Musk, who is serving as Trump’s top adviser for reducing federal spending. Under the plan, employees can stop working and get paid until September 30, according to AP.
Labor unions argued the plan is illegal and asked for O’Toole to keep it on hold and prevent the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, from soliciting more workers to sign up.
A Justice Department lawyer has called the plan a “humane off ramp” for federal employees who may have structured their lives around working remotely and have been ordered to return to government offices.
