[RAY BOGAN]

The National Treasury Employees Union is urging its members not to participate in the deferred resignation program offered by the Trump Administration to most federal workers. The NTEU is one of multiple unions speaking out against the buyouts which would allow employees to resign by February and continue receiving pay and benefits until September. 

the NTEU said in a message to its members: “Make no mistake: this email is designed to entice or scare you into resigning from the federal government. We strongly urge you not to resign in response to this email.” 

Some members of a Reddit thread for federal workers said they believed it was a trap and doubted everyone would get paid, given the government is set to run out of funding in March without a deal. 

Federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management Tuesday afternoon with the subject line “Fork in the Road”. 

It laid out four pillars of what is described as the new reformed federal workforce: 1) return to office 2) performance culture 3) more streamlined and flexible workforce 4) enhanced standards of conduct. 

American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.  “This offer should not be viewed as voluntary. Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to,” American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.  

Kelley added that the number of civil servants hasn’t meaningfully changed since the 1970s, despite the significantly higher population and demand for services. 

Kelley said.  “Purging the federal government of dedicated career civil servants will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” 

Those who want to take the offer simply need to send an email to the Office of Personnel Management with the subject line “resign”, copy and paste a prewritten notice and hit send. 

The email from OPM to all employees also said those who don’t resign aren’t guaranteed to have their positions. 

the email said: “At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” 

The White House expects up to 10% of employees to take the offer.