A United States judge has paused President Donald Trump’s plan to offer incentives to federal workers who resign before a Thursday midnight deadline.
An email was sent to employees informing them of the court-ordered pause and said the deadline would be extended to Monday. The email did not acknowledge the possibility that the judge might further halt the deferred resignation offer.
“In compliance with an order issued today by the District Court of Massachusetts granting a request to stay the deadline for the Deferred Resignation Program, the deadline for federal employees to accept the program is being extended to Monday, February 10, at 11:59pm ET,” the email said.
The lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and several other unions in the US District Court in Massachusetts seeking a temporary halt on the 6 February deadline.
In response to federal judge George O’Toole Jr pausing the offer AFGE national president, Everett Kelley said they were pleased to hear the verdict.
“We are pleased the court temporarily paused this deadline while arguments are heard about the legality of the deferred resignation program,” Kelley said.
“We continue to believe this program violates the law, and we will continue to aggressively defend our members’ rights,”
Before the lawsuit, the offer was extended to around 2 million employees to allow them to leave their jobs while being paid through to September.
The offer was unveiled in a mass email from federal employees on 28 January, which many federal workers unions opposed.
So far around 50,000 workers have taken the deal which represents around 2.5% of federal workers. The White House has stated that its target was for between 5% and 10% of employees to resign and that they are planning widespread layoffs after the cutoff date.
