Judge blocks deadline for Trump federal worker buyouts

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Federal workers have at least until Monday to decide whether to take a buyout deal offered by the Trump administration.

Several federal employee unions have filed a lawsuit claiming the administration doesn’t have the authority to offer the buyouts. A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the deadline, and scheduled a hearing to consider the issue Monday.

The White House said President Donald Trump’s offer to pay employees and provide benefits for eight months, if they resign, is a good one.

“We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer. If they don’t want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, they’re welcome to take this buy out,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The administration said Thursday at least 40,000 federal workers have accepted the offer.

Washington employment law attorney Tom Spiggle said his phone has been ringing off the hook with workers considering the offer. He said signing on the dotted line is risky.

“I would say that you should talk to your union if you’re in the union,” Spiggle said. “Talk to a lawyer if you have a lawyer. Talk to your accountant.”

Spiggle said there has never been a sweeping government buyout offer like this before, and there is uncertainty in the language of the proposal.

“Not only is there no guarantee they’ll get the money, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to not work” Spiggle said. “I mean that’s the whole, right, the carrot approach to this, like hey, we’ll pay you for sit home and eat bon bons, or get a new job, or whatever it is that you want to do.”

He said there are circumstances when it might make sense to accept the terms.

“I get the difficult position this puts people in,” he said. “Like if you’re going to be leaving anyway. If you’re going to be close to retirement. You know you’re willing to take the risk, like hey it sounds like a good deal i’ll take the eight months.”

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