MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal staff members have till February 6 to choose whether to voluntarily leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, informed employees on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday - that's less than a week from now - most will be enabled to depart and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is a work attorney who represents federal workers as a large part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM's delayed resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact do not consider it so much an offer. I think it's a request to resign with an unclear promise that, possibly, you could be kept in administrative leave status for timeoftheworld.date as much as eight months - however no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have actually been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is because there seems to be the deal of administrative leave for as much as 8 months if you take this deal. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would never describe it as a buyout. I believe that's a very deceptive term to use in this circumstance. When you think about a buyout, there's typically some sort of written contract or a concrete deal to offer a benefit in exchange for waiving particular rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your guidance, what are you informing them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is exercise extreme caution. There are no assurances consisted of in this email. The only thing I can tell you for specific is that if you change 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: Exists some classification of staff member who you believe this might benefit? Maybe they're close to retirement. Is someone like that may this be an appealing offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most careful since leaving earlier than planned can have severe effects, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She told press reporters that this is a bargain for individuals who don't want to return to the office. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a recommendation to federal employees that they have to return in - to work. And if they don't, then they have the option to resign, and this administration is very kindly using to pay them for 8 months.MARTIN: You're shaking your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply - in a method, it breaks my heart that federal workers are being jerked around like this. It sends a signal to me that this order remains in bad faith, that it's created to get folks who work truly difficult to resign. I believe it's attempting to pull the wool over a great deal of people's eyes since there are no assurances. And securityholes.science these are individuals who love their task. They love the objective of the firm. They strive. And today, they're facing extremely tough choices, specifically if they're remote. I imply, it's really coercive.MARTIN: You state it's coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: wakewiki.de Essentially, if you're somebody who resides in Oregon and has been told to report to D.C. or else we're going to fire you, they might feel that they have no option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal challenges just to the deal 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 figure out what to do with it. I'm uncertain if the offer itself may be challengeable. I believe the bigger concern is the execution of these terms. I'm not familiar with any authority that exists right now for OPM to purchase firms to offer this number of people administrative leave. So I believe it is very much potentially setting the phase for obstacles because I feel OPM has vastly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work lawyer with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you a lot for having me here.

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