Good morning!
Federal workers who received a mass buyout offer have a bit more breathing room this morning after a judge put the Trump administration’s controversial resignation offer on hold—again.
In a hearing on Monday, U.S. District Judge George O'Toole extended a pause against the “Fork in the Road” directive. Originally sent as an email by the Office of Personnel Management to more than 2 million federal civilian employees on Jan. 28, it offered to pay them through the end of September if they submitted their resignation by Feb. 6. After federal employee worker unions sued the Trump administration, that deadline was later extended to midnight on Feb.10, and will now be pushed back once more.
The resignation offer is part of a sweeping effort by the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk to drastically cut down the size of the federal government. The OPM email sent federal workers into a tizzy, many of whom were unsure whether to take the offer with a questionable legal basis, or stay in their roles and upend their lives trying to work from the office five days a week. Unions advised members not to take the deal, but roughly 65,000 government employees—around 3% of all federal civilian workers—have reportedly agreed to resign so far.
The resignation deadline is paused for now, but Judge O’Toole has yet to rule on the lawsuit itself. And while pauses such as these can sometimes be stretched over months, it likely won’t take long for him to come to a decision due to its national significance, notes Joe Schmitt, a labor and employment lawyer at law firm Nilan Johnson Lewis.
“I think the judge understands that it's really important that we get some certainty, not just for the 65,000 employees, but for the federal government as a whole,” he says. “The government has to have enough staff to be able to operate, and the longer this stretches on, the more uncertainty there's going to be about that staffing.”
Lawyers have previously told Fortune that they expect the legal issue over federal buyouts may end up in the Supreme Court.
The latest delay is welcome news for federal worker unions and worker rights groups, who are celebrating Monday’s pause. “Rather than allow the Trump-Musk MO of moving fast and breaking things, we’re pleased that the judge is trying to get the Administration to be careful and fix things,” says Jason Solomon, director of the National Institute for Workers’ Rights, a nonprofit think tank.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a federal employee union representing 800,000 workers, adds that federal workers “deserve to have all the clarity they need on this program to make the decision that is best for them.”
“We believe at the end of the day the judge in this case will side with us.”
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
