Donald Trump has just dropped a bombshell offer to millions of people working for the government.
It’s been a little more than a week since Trump became the 47th president of the United States after his inauguration on January 20, and he’s wasted no time in dramatically overhauling some of the work of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
To name just a handful of recent proposals flying out of the White House under his orders, he declared a ‘national emergency’ over immigration, threatened Colombia with tariff sanctions, floated exile as punishment for repeat US convicts, proposed changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the Paris Climate Agreement.
That, and he’s pardoned some rather controversial figures, such as dark web Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, who walked free from prison after 11 years, and fired the Justice Department lawyers who had been working on criminal cases against him.
However, he appears to be toeing a tough line over employment in general.
Trump scrapped government diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs by revoking the Executive Order 11246, while putting Department of Labor employees in charge of the initiatives on paid leave.
Now, around two million federal workers from various departments have been coaxed out of leaving Washington D.C. – or from working from home – after Trump offered them a buyout in a supposed crackdown on home-working practices, reports CBS News.
An estimated six percent of the federal workforce work full-time in the office, the Trump administration says.
However, it’s not just the homeworkers, as two million government staff received an email on Tuesday (January 28) offering them a ‘deferred resignation programme’ which would allow them to claim eight months of their salary – providing they accept the offer by the deadline, February 6.
The proposal means the workers can decide now that they will resign in the fall, during which they will receive pay and benefits up until September 30.
The email, which has been seen by CBS, states: “If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason)”.
The Trump administration hopes the move will save the government a hefty sum.
If just 200,000 of the employees accept the offer, as the government is anticipating, officials believe it will save around $100 billion.
However, not all employees received the offer, including serving military personnel, immigration staff, postal workers and others in national security roles.
Meanwhile, those who refuse the offer have reportedly not been promised any job security or benefits of staying on board. The outlet added that the email was delivered with a simple one-word subject line: “Resign”.
The news comes as Trump is apparently on a cost-cutting mission with more positions said to be vulnerable to further downsizing.
