On Wednesday, top officials at the Department of Education warned employees that if they accept the deferred resignation package offered by the Trump administration, the education secretary may later rescind it, leaving workers without any recourse and possibly without the promised pay.
Federal employees were notified last week by the Office of Personnel Management that they may keep their salary and benefits through the end of September if they leave by February 6. As part of a plan to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, the Trump administration is seeking to get up to 10% of the workers to resign.
However, at an all-staff meeting conducted via Zoom on Wednesday, the department’s new chief of staff, Rachel Oglesby, and top human capital officer, Jacqueline Clay, explained important cautions to the so-called Fork in the Road offer, three Education Department sources told NBC News. For fear of reprisals, the officials refused to be identified.
The three officials claimed to have been informed during the meeting that staff who accepted the deferred resignation package would forfeit all legal claims, and that the Education Secretary may revoke the arrangement or the government could cease funding. According to the three workers, they have only received sample resignation documents thus far, and they won’t be able to view the precise terms of their separation until they agree to step down by Thursday night.
One department official who was present stated, “Act now, one day only,” which sounded like a commercial for a used car store.
A request for comment on Wednesday was not answered by the Education Department.
This was untrue, according to an Office of Personnel Management spokeswoman, who cited a memo stating that the government is bound by the resignation offer’s guarantees. An employee would have the right to request that their resignation be revoked if the government were to renege on its promises. The letter does, however, contain an example agreement that states that employees forfeit their right to contest the agreement before the Merit Systems Protection Board or any other body, and that agency directors have the exclusive authority to revoke the agreement.
According to a document obtained by NBC News, similar language can be found in a model deferred resignation agreement tailored for Education Department employees.
The Trump administration has been putting increasing pressure on the federal government to accept the buyout offer. Please take note that the Deferred Resignation program (Fork in the Road) ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 6th, according to an email sent by OPM to federal employees on Tuesday in response to the initial buyout offering. This is not going to be an extended program.
According to a White House official, out of the more than two million federal employees, more than 40,000 have accepted the buyout offer thus far.
Federal employees are extremely concerned that the Trump administration’s buyout offer may be a ruse, and that the government may not fulfill its half of the agreement. The three workers claimed that the remarks made by the administration of the Education Department simply made their worries worse.
According to a second official, morale is quite low. One of the managers I work with recently stated that he hasn’t seen any emails in the four hours since the meeting concluded because everyone seemed to be completely exhausted.
A third worker characterized the call’s tone as irate because staff asked queries in Zoom’s chat box but never heard back.
Amid a flurry of executive orders and maneuvers by Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, an entity within the White House, the unique buyout offer has upended Washington, D.C. Two weeks have seen the beginning of a broad initiative by Trump and Musk to restructure the federal government, cut expenditure, and even abolish certain departments.
Trump and Musk, according to many Democrats and some Republicans, are breaking constitutional restrictions on the presidency in ways that are illegal and causing a constitutional crisis.
Some federal labor unions have filed a lawsuit to halt the deferred resignation program, claiming that the Trump administration lacks the legal right to provide these buyouts. Federal employees may never receive the promised resignation benefits, according to Democratic attorneys general and federal government labor organizations, which have described the promises as an attempt to scare people into resigning.
Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment and the administrator of the Small Business Administration during his first term in office, has been nominated by Trump to serve as Education Secretary. There is currently no scheduled confirmation hearing.
McMahon might not be the first staffing change to arrive in the Education Department. The three department officials claimed to have been informed during Wednesday’s meeting that the department anticipates implementing layoffs, often known as a reduction in force. During the discussion, Oglesby, the chief of staff, and Clay, the human capital officer, did not disclose the dates of those events or whose offices would be most affected.
Employees of the Education Department must also report to work every day by February 24. Clay informed the staff that department heads are trying to locate another government building within 50 miles of their homes where remote workers can work.
Trump has stated his desire to abolish the Education Department, which would satisfy a long-held Republican base desire but would require a congressional act to accomplish. Citing anonymous persons with knowledge of the situation, the Wall Street Journal said Monday that the White House is considering unilateral action that may dissolve the department piecemeal.