Federal workers are raising legal and ethical questions about a follow-up memo of frequently asked questions on the Trump administration's offer for civil servants to resign by Feb. 6.
On Friday, the Office of Personnel Management sent a follow-up memo of
The Trump administration's OPM wants federal employees to resign while still getting paid their full government salary through Sept. 30. The FAQ memo states that federal workers will continue to accrue "further personal leave days, vacation days, etc. and be paid out for unused leave at your final resignation date."
"Am I allowed to get a second job during the deferred resignation period?" the memo asks. "Absolutely! We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so. The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector."
The memo also responded to questions about vacation.
"The federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes. As a result of these changes (or for other reasons), you may wish to depart the federal government on terms that provide you with sufficient time and economic security to plan for your future — and have a nice vacation," the memo states. "You are most welcome [to] stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination. Whatever you would like."
Some employees at federal financial regulatory agencies said the memos are filled with inaccurate information. For example, staff at financial regulatory agencies are not allowed to have other jobs. Many are prohibited from even volunteering on a board without going through their agency's ethics office for approval.
"Technically I can't work another job while I match on the payroll for the federal government," said an attorney at a financial regulatory agency, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by the Trump administration. "We have to work to get paid, so I don't know what legal authority there is for [saying] that."
The offer of deferred resignation is being made available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel, postal workers, immigration enforcement and national security. The offer to resign will generally not be available to federal employees after Feb. 6.
The civil service refers to government employees who work in non-political and non-judicial roles and are hired based on merit and seniority. Their jobs continue even when the political leadership of the country changes. The Trump administration has long referred to federal employees and regulatory agencies as the "deep state."
The memo says that federal workers also will continue to accrue retirement benefits during the deferred resignation period. Civil service employees also have the right to rescind their resignation at any time with the agency they work for reviewing the requests.
"It is the objective of the program to move quickly to consolidate and/or reassign roles and in many cases place employees on administrative leave which would likely serve as a valid reason to deny recission requests," the memo says.
On Wednesday, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — two labor unions that represent more than 2 million government workers — asked a federal judge to bar President Trump's executive order from going into effect, claiming the administration overstepped its authority by stripping federal workers of their right to comment on proposed rule changes in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
On Tuesday, the National Treasury Employees Union
The Schedule F order was designed to allow the Trump administration to replace tens of thousands of career civil servants.
Congress has enacted comprehensive legislation governing the hiring and employment of federal employees, who have "due process rights if their agency employer wants to remove them from employment," the suit states. "Because the Policy/Career Executive Order attempts to divest federal employees of these due process rights, it is contrary to congressional intent. It is also directly contrary to Office of Personnel Management regulations."
The NTEU represents roughly 150,000 employees across 35 different departments and agencies. Some civil service workers said they would not respond to the Trump administration's
