Judge halts Trump\s government worker buyout plan: US media

A federal judge has temporarily halted President Donald Trumps plan to offer a resignation package to federal employees.

The White House had said that tens of thousands of US government workers had accepted the offer to resign in exchange for pay through 30 September - though workers expressed confusion about the terms of the deal.

Federal Judge George O‘Toole Jr said the plan would be paused until a hearing on Monday when he could hear the merits of a lawsuit filed by federal employeee unions who questioned the plan’s legality, according to the BBCs US partner CBS News.

The order came hours before Thursdays 23:59 ET (04:59 GMT) deadline for federal workers to accept the deal.

A lawyer for the Justice Department said the Office of Personnel Management would notify federal employees that the deadline had been paused, CBS reported.

The White House, which previously said it hoped for as many as 200,000 people to accept its offer, told US media they expected a spike in participation just ahead of the deadline.

The resignation schemes announcement - delivered in the form of a late-night email with the subject line Fork in the Road - is part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy and cut spending.

An analysis of the federal workforce by the non-profit Partnership for Public Service found that the annual attrition rate among federal employees is about 6%, suggesting that some workers may have been intended to leave government.

The worker union American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit against the White Houses Office of Personnel Management, arguing it had violated the law as it did not have the funds to back the deal and have given conflicting guidance about its terms.

AFGE had previously warned its members NOT to resign or respond to the White Houses resignation package.

The union had said in an email to members that the offer was part of an effort to dismantle the civil service and replace the skilled, professional workforce with unqualified political appointees and for-profit contractors.

The union noted that Congress has not passed a budget past 14 March, meaning it was unclear whether agencies could pay workers through September.

There is not yet any evidence the administration can or will uphold its end of the bargain, that Congress will go along with this unilateral massive restructuring, or that appropriated funds can be used this way, among other issues that have been raised, AFGE said in the message.

On Tuesday, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became the first national security department to extend the offer to its staff, telling its entire workforce they could quit and receive about eight months of pay and benefits.

Former US intelligence officials and some lawmakers have raised concerns that this offer could undermine US national security priorities.