A federal judge in Boston dissolved his temporary freezing on Wednesday in the unprecedented offer of the Trump administration so that millions of federal workers will resign, allowing the controversial to continue for the road “on the road.”
The American District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. had temporarily arrested the offer of mass purchases of the administration to millions of federal workers last week, only a few hours before the deadline on Thursday so that employees accept the offer . That order occurred after the unions that represent government workers filed a lawsuit claiming that the administration did not have the legal authority to offer such purchases.
In his ruling on Wednesday, O’Toole discovered that the unions lacked legal position to bring the demand.
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“The plaintiffs here are not directly affected by the Directive. On the other hand, they claim that the directive submits them to upstream effects, including a deviation of resources to answer the questions of the members about the directive, a possible loss of membership and a possible reputation damage. ” He wrote.
“The unions do not have the direct participation required in the Bifurcation Directive, but they are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically the executive employees of the branch. This is not enough,” O’Toole added.
He said that “the temporary restriction order previously dissolves and a greater preliminary relief by court order is denied.”
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, praised the judge’s action.
“This Boston purchase decision is the first of many legal victories for the president,” he said in a statement. “This shows that the law will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.”
Everett Kelley, head of one of the unions involved in demand, the American Federation of Government employees, described the ruling “a setback in the struggle for dignity and equity for public servants. But it is not the end of that fight .
He also pointed out that the ruling “did not address the underlying legality of the program.”
The Personnel Management Office extended the mass offer of “Deferred Resignation” to employees in an email on January 28 with the “Fork on the way”. The program says it will allow workers to resign now, but they are paid until September.
Some legal experts have questioned the validity of the offer. The employees of the Department of Education last week were warned that the Administration could decide in theory to cancel the plan and leave high and dry employees.
A senior administration official told NBC News at the time the offer was made for the first time that they expected to resign from 5% to 10% of the Federal Work Force. The official estimated that he could lead to about $ 100 billion in savings.
When O’Tooo froze the program last week, 60,000 workers had accepted the agreement.
Although most full -time federal employees are eligible for offer, exceptions for army members were made, the employees of the United States postal service, posts related to the application of the immigration law and national security law and other works excluded by agencies.
