A good week, US President Trump gave time to the approximately two million federal officials to accept an offer from the government: severance payment against voluntary termination. A judge has now exposed this period for the time being.
The Trump government had made the following offer almost all of the two million federal employees in an email: In the event that they voluntarily acknowledge the service, they were offered a severance payment of eight monthly salaries. It is also described that a different course will be in the government in the future, according to which loyalty, more performance and strict work in the office are required. In the mail entitled “Weg fore”, the report also said that a job cuts were planned in most federal authorities.
At midnight on the night of Friday (local time), a deadline would have expired to which those affected had to register for a corresponding retreat.
Unions warn civil servants of termination
The federal judge George A. O'Toole Jr. in Boston described the ultimatum as “arbitrary, illegal, rushed” and stopped it. He ordered the government to extend the deadline until after a court date at the beginning of next week. He did not judge the legality of the program.
Several unions had sued the severance payment program, which represented a total of more than 800,000 employees. They warned against accepting the offer, because the health insurance of the employees is often linked to the employment contract. So if you quit, you are no longer insured.
The employees were faced with the question of whether they should accept the severance payment or take the risk of simply firing at a later time. To accept the offer, they just had to type in the word “resign” (“terminate”) into the subject line of their response email. An employee in the Authority for Personnel Administration (OPM) who sent the Rundmail told the AFP news agency, the goal of sowing “panic” and triggering dismissals.
Musk encouraged to terminate
In the planned drastic reduction in the authority apparatus, Trump is supported by the Tech Multimilliardistrilliarche Elon Musk, who heads a department for state efficiency (Doge). In a message from Doge on Musk online platform X it was said that the employees could use the severance payment “to take the vacation they always wanted to make, or to simply watch and chill films while they were their state content and Complete services in full “.
Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that 40,000 employees had previously accepted the offer. She assumes that the number will increase. Trump had started turning the state apparatus off immediately after taking office. The focus is on a decree, according to which federal employees should be classified as “political” employees in the future – and can be fired more easily. Trump's team is likely to focus on the impression of the impending job loss of termination from their own pieces.
With information from Sebastian Hesse, ARD studio Washington
