MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Federal employees have until February 6 to choose whether to willingly leave their jobs. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, notified employees on Tuesday that if they hand in their resignation by next Thursday - that's less than a week from now - most will be allowed to take leave and be paid till the end of September. Michelle Bercovici is a work attorney who represents federal staff members as a big part of her practice, so I asked her for her interpretation about what OPM's postponed resignation program would in fact mean.MICHELLE BERCOVICI: I in fact don't consider it so much a deal. I believe it's a request to resign with a vague promise that, possibly, you might be kept in administrative leave status for approximately eight months - but no guarantees.MARTIN: Some individuals have been utilizing the term buyout to explain what this is due to the fact that there appears to be the offer of administrative leave for approximately 8 months if you take this offer. So is it a buyout?BERCOVICI: I would absolutely not describe it as a buyout. I think that's a really misleading term to utilize in this scenario. When you believe of a buyout, there's usually some sort of written contract or a concrete offer to supply an advantage in exchange for waiving certain rights. That is not the case here.MARTIN: If clients ask you for your guidance, what are you telling them?BERCOVICI: First thing we inform them is workout severe care. There are no guarantees consisted of in this email. The only thing I can tell you for specific is that if you change your mind, the firm's probably not going to let you withdraw that resignation, and you are basically offering up control over a lot.MARTIN: Exists some category of staff member who you think this might benefit? Maybe they're close to retirement. Is somebody like that might this be an attractive offer?BERCOVICI: Folks near retirement require to be the most cautious since leaving earlier than meant can have severe effects, possibly, on their benefits.MARTIN: Let me simply play a clip from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She informed reporters that this is an excellent deal for individuals who do not wish to return to the workplace. Let me just play it.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)KAROLINE LEAVITT: This is a suggestion to federal workers that they need to return in - to work. And if they don't, then they have the alternative to resign, and this administration is very generously using to pay them for eight months.MARTIN: You're your head no.BERCOVICI: It simply - in a way, it breaks my heart that federal workers are being jerked around like this. It sends out a signal to me that this return-to-office order remains in bad faith, that it's created to get folks who work really hard to resign. I think it's attempting to pull the wool over a lot of individuals's eyes because there are no guarantees. And these are people who like their job. They enjoy the objective of the company. They work hard. And today, they're dealing with really hard options, especially if they're remote. I mean, wiki.eqoarevival.com it's very coercive.MARTIN: You state it's coercive. Because?BERCOVICI: Essentially, if you're someone who lives in Oregon and has been told to report to D.C. or else we're going to fire you, they might feel that they have no option than to take this option.MARTIN: Do you anticipate legal obstacles just to the deal itself? And if so, on what grounds?BERCOVICI: This offer, to be honest, is so unprecedented that I believe a great deal of us are still attempting to find out what to do with it. I'm not exactly sure if the deal itself might be challengeable. I believe the larger question is the execution of these terms. I'm not knowledgeable about any authority that exists today for OPM to order companies to provide this variety of individuals administrative leave. So I think it is quite potentially setting the stage for obstacles because I feel OPM has greatly exceeded their authority.MARTIN: That is Michelle Bercovici. She is a work legal representative with the Alden Law Group here in Washington, D.C. Thank you so much for signing up with us.BERCOVICI: Thank you so much for having me here.

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