Trump Offers Federal Workers 8 Months’ Pay to Quit in Government Downsizing Push

The Trump administration has launched a new initiative, allowing federal workers to take eight months of paid leave in exchange for their voluntary resignation. Workers have until February 6 to decide and exclude positions in immigration, national security, and the U.S. Postal Service, under the program announced in the Office of Personnel Management.

The move has been strongly criticized by union leaders; American Federation of Government Employees president Everett Kelley referred to the move as a ‘purge’ of workers the administration considers disloyal to the administration. Elon Musk is overseeing the program in part as part of a bid by the government to cut costs and is expected to draw in as much as 10 percent of eligible federal workers. Titled “Fork in the road,” the official memo, which promises pay and benefits through Sept. 30, no matter the workload, also exempts workers from in-person work requirements.

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 federal workers, urged its members not to take the offer and called the email an effort to ‘scare or entice’ federal employees to quit. Implementation of the program represents a huge change in the way the federal workforce is managed, potentially touching the careers of some 3 million government workers.

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