A federal judge has temporarily paused Thursday's deadline for federal workers to decide whether to accept a buyout offer from Donald Trump's administration.
Massachusetts-based judge George O'Toole, a Bill Clinton appointee, ordered the deadline for accepting the administration's "Fork in the Road" buyout to be extended until at least Monday, and possibly longer, while parties to the case engage in emergency litigation over implementation of the program.
“We are pleased the court temporarily paused this deadline while arguments are heard about the legality of the deferred resignation program," said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "We continue to believe this program violates the law, and we will continue to aggressively defend our members’ rights."
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More than 2 million federal employees were given the choice of accepting the administration's "Fork in the Road" deferred resignation offer, which would allow them to be paid through September without reporting for duty, or keep their jobs and risk being fired.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) extended the offer as part of Elon Musk's Trump-sanctioned effort to drastically cut government spending and the federal workforce, and several employee unions have filed lawsuits challenging the deal's legality, as well as some of its provisions.
O'Toole's ruling indicates that 60,000 workers have purportedly agreed to accept the "Fork" deal.
