Updated February 06, 2025 at 15:05 PM ET
A federal judge in Massachusetts granted a request from labor unions on Thursday to pause the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" offer to federal employees until Monday.
U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, issued the decision just hours before the deadline for federal workers to accept the offer to resign from their jobs now with the promise that they can keep their pay and benefits through Sept. 30.
O'Toole said the court had just received a brief from the government and wanted to give the labor unions that brought the lawsuit until close of business Friday to reply. He scheduled another hearing on Monday at 2 p.m. ET, when he will consider the merits of the case.
At the request of the unions' attorney, O'Toole also ordered the government to send out notice of this change today to all employees who have received the offer. The unions expressed concern that some federal workers may accept the deal, not knowing they have more time.
"We are grateful to the judge for extending the deadline so more federal workers who refuse to show up to the office can take the administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
"Arbitrary and capricious"
The lawsuit, filed by the legal group Democracy Forward on behalf of unions representing more than 800,000 civil servants, alleges that the Trump administration's resignation offer is unlawful and "arbitrary and capricious in numerous respects."
The lawsuit argues that the offer fails to consider possible adverse consequences to the government's ability to function; sets an arbitrarily short deadline; and is pretext for removing and replacing workers on an ideological basis, among other things.
The unions are also challenging whether OPM, which announced the offer through a Jan. 28 email titled "Fork in the Road," exceeded its authority in promising pay and benefits through the end of September, pointing out that funding for most federal agencies expires on March 14, 2025.
The Antideficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from obligating any spending that has yet to be approved by Congress.
At least 2% of federal workers have said yes, according to the Trump administration
The resignation offer was sent to more than 2 million civilian employees of the federal government, including employees of the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. Earlier, OPM had excluded people in positions related to national security from the offer.
By late Wednesday, more than 40,000 employees, or roughly 2% of the federal workers eligible for the offer, had agreed to resign, according to an administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. After the court paused the program on Thursday, the official said agencies could still process resignations for federal workers who applied ahead of the Monday hearing.
Meanwhile, confusion over whether the deal is legal and enforceable persists, and many federal employees remain wary.
"I don't know anybody considering taking it who wasn't already planning on retiring," said David Casserly, a Labor Department employee of 3 1/2 years, at a rally outside the Frances Perkins Building where the Labor Department is headquartered, on Wednesday.
The original "Fork" email warned employees who choose to stay that their jobs are not guaranteed. This week, leaders at some agencies warned of significant layoffs ahead.
Still, Casserly, who's also a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the unions suing the administration, said people are not intimidated.
"We have rights as federal employees, and we intend to exercise them to the fullest ability that we can," he said.
NPR's Asma Khalid contributed to this report.
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