A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s Thursday deadline for federal workers to apply for a deferred resignation program that would allow them to maintain their pay and benefits through September 30.
U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. suspended the deadline until Monday to let a hearing that afternoon proceed. The delay was made to allow time for the filing of additional legal briefs. In addition to keeping their pay and benefits until the end of September, workers would have been excused from the administration’s return-to-office mandate under the deferred resignation program.
“I enjoin the defendants from taking action to implement the so-called fork directive, pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” the judge said.
The buyout offer for federal employees was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. The plan was part of the Trump administration’s goal to reduce the federal workforce and make the executive branch more efficient.
Earlier this week, labor unions sued the Trump administration for making an “arbitrary and capricious” buyout offer to more than 2 million federal employees. The judge’s order came in response to the litigation.
The Office of Personnel Management argued a deadline extension was completely unnecessary and that the unions failed to establish irreparable harm or legal standing to bar the office from carrying out the resignation program.
“Extending the deadline for the acceptance of deferred resignation on its very last day will markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the Administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce,” the agency said in a Thursday court filing.
“Those serious repercussions only underscore the import of holding Plaintiffs to their high burdens on the other prongs at issue; and confirm that their last-minute request for extraordinary relief cannot succeed.”
Following the court order, a government lawyer said the administration would inform workers of the latest development.
O’Toole, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, noted the deadline extension does not indicate how he will rule on the matter.
Of the roughly 2.3 million federal employees, the Trump administration hoped 5 to 10 percent of the workforce would volunteer to resign before the midnight deadline. More than 40,000 workers have already opted into the resignation initiative and that number was expected to increase before the delay, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer,” Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “We’ll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles.”