Elon Musk’s mass resignation hopes hit legal roadblock
Elon Musk’s mass redundancy scheme for federal workers has been put on hold by a judge hours before a deadline to quit.
Elon Musk’s mass redundancy scheme for federal workers has been put on hold by a judge hours before a deadline to reply to his “fork in the road” email offering up to seven months’ pay to quit.
About 40,000 staff were said to have replied by Wednesday, emailing the word “resign” to the US Office of Personnel Management following the offer from Mr Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
This is about 2 per cent of the workforce, short of the 5 to 10 per cent anticipated by Mr Musk. About 6 per cent of federal workers retire or resign in a typical year.
The Trump administration was temporarily blocked from implementing its plans when District Court judge George O’Toole put them on hold until a full court hearing in Boston on Monday to hear challenges from unions to the legality of the process.
Officials said the pace of acceptances had accelerated after a second email clarifying that most of those leaving would be placed on administrative leave rather than required to work out their notice, following confusion over the vague terms of the original email sent on January 28.
Staff woke on Thursday morning to a third email emphasising that the offer expired at midnight and if they did not accept it, they could still lose their jobs.
There are reports that the OPM has an ultimate target of cutting between 30 and 70 per cent of civilian federal staff.
“At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position,” the message read.
The original email copied the same phrasing as one received by Twitter employees after Mr Musk took it over in 2022, although that gave the social media company employees just 24 hours to make up their minds.
All but a few categories of the 2.4 million civilian federal employees were told they could apply and should do so if they did not want to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to work in the office five days a week, or accept “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct”.
Numerous federal jobs have been cut during the first weeks of the Trump administration amid a growing outcry about Mr Musk being neither elected nor formally appointed through a process that would have brought public scrutiny of his powers.
“Whatever DOGE is doing, it is certainly not – not – what democracy looks like or has ever looked like in the grand history of this country,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer SAID.
“An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.”
Mr Musk responded on X: “Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that DOGE is doing work that really matters.”
The most dramatic cuts have come at the US Agency for International Development after its spending was frozen. mR Musk posted on Monday that he and his team “spent the weekend feeding USAid into the wood chipper”.
Almost all 10,235 employees were put on paid leave from Friday while facing redundancy. USAid workers and contractors overseas have been given 30 days to return to the US, with exceptions for hardships such as safety or medical reasons, with “termination of ... contracts that are not determined to be essential”.
The evisceration of the 63-year-old agency has been accompanied by a publicity barrage from Mr Musk on X to highlight USAid spending he considers wasteful.
The Times
‘Anti-Christian bias’ to be tackled by new taskforce
US President Donald Trump has unveiled a taskforce to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ in government.
Female executive accuses ‘toxic’ Meta of ‘silencing women’
A former executive of Meta Platforms has accused the Facebook and Instagram owner of creating a ‘toxic’ workplace for women.