WA AG Brown: Trump's federal employee buyout offer ‘misleading’
SEATTLE - Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown issued a warning about the Trump administration's federal employee buyout offer, calling it "misleading" and "shameless."
Brown and a coalition of 11 other state attorneys general warned that the President's "deferred resignation" program would not guarantee federal employees the benefits they are promised.
What is President Trump's deferred resignation program?
The backstory:
Last week, the White House began offering buyouts worth seven months of salary to all federal employees who opt to leave their jobs by Feb. 6 — part of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented overhaul of the U.S. government.
A memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency, lists four directives that it says Trump is mandating for the federal workforce, including that most workers return to their offices full-time. The memo encourages federal employees to find "higher productivity" jobs outside of the government.
The program promises that employees who resign will "retain all pay and benefits regardless of [their] daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30."
However, it appears this offer does not extend to federal employees in immigration enforcement, national security, the U.S. Postal Service, and the military.
What they're saying:
"I urge federal employees from Washington state, and federal employees working in our state, to contact their union if they are curious about this so-called buyout offer," said AG Brown. "When I was a U.S. attorney, I saw firsthand the important and needed public services that federal employees provide. These shameless attacks on our federal workforce by a lawless president must stop."
The Attorney General's Office says that, shortly after the OPM's announcement, federal employee unions sent warnings to their members urging them against accepting the offer.
"Employees should not take the Program at face value. The Program documentation […] are riddled with inconsistencies and uncertainties," reads a memo from the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employees union. "It is also unclear whether OPM has the legal authority to support the Program or its alleged benefits, and the eligibility criteria are vague."
The attorneys general warn there is no guarantee the White House will honor its promise.
Brown was joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont.
The Source: Information comes from the Washington State Attorney General's Office, as well as previous coverage from FOX 13 Seattle.
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