Julia Christine Botin

Judge pauses Musk plan for mass cull of US gov't workers

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1738898228150New Project (2).jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">US President Donald Trump (L) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk watch a fight during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York, on November 16, 2024. <em>Kena Betancur, AFP/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>WASHINGTON, United States - A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/1/29/trump-admin-offers-federal-workers-exit-package-0920">Trump admin offers federal workers exit package</a></div><p>The federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction on the plan&#x27;s deadline -- midnight Thursday -- given by Musk for the country&#x27;s more than two million government employees. The offer was to quit with eight months&#x27; pay or risk being fired in future culls.</p><p>The deadline is now extended to Monday, when US District Judge George O&#x27;Toole will hold a hearing on the merits of the case brought by labor unions, US media reported.</p><p>Musk, the world&#x27;s richest person and President Donald Trump&#x27;s biggest donor, is in charge of a free-ranging entity called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to gut the government.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2GAJFnii-o0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, more than 40,000 staff have so far accepted the buyout deal -- a relatively small number.</p><p>Unions representing some 800,000 civil servants and Democratic members of Congress are resisting the scheme and have challenged the legality of threats to fire civil servants.</p><p>But the broader budget cutting campaign -- fanned by anti-government-worker invective from Trump and his aides -- has already severely disrupted the huge departments and agencies that for decades have run everything from education to national intelligence.</p><p>USAID, the government&#x27;s humanitarian aid agency, has been crippled, with foreign-based staff ordered home and the organization&#x27;s programs lambasted daily -- and often inaccurately -- as wasteful by the White House and right-wing media.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/2/7/-life-or-death-consequences-for-millions-ngos-stunned-by-us-aid-freeze-0940">&#x27;Life or death consequences for millions&#x27;: NGOs stunned by US aid freeze</a></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/2/4/usaid-freeze-calls-into-question-billions-in-support-for-poorest-countries-0914">USAID freeze calls into question billions in support for poorest countries</a></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/2/5/usaid-closure-affects-p4-billion-in-deped-projects-0923">USAID closure affects P4 billion in DepEd projects</a></div><p>A union official confirmed reports that the agency&#x27;s global workforce would be slashed from over 10,000 to just under 300.</p><p>&quot;Eventually we will have to stop food distribution, because we won&#x27;t have bodies in the field to make sure the food is actually being distributed,&quot; Randy Chester, vice president of the American Foreign Service Association, told reporters.</p><p>Robin Thurston, of Democracy Forward, which has sued the Trump administration over the mass layoffs at USAID, slammed the &quot;unlawful seizure of this agency by the Trump-Vance administration, in a plain violation of basic constitutional principles about separation of power.&quot;</p><p>Trump has also repeatedly said he wants to shut down the Department of Education. The inducements to resign have further been extended to the CIA.</p><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAEyze-tm4MR6kEa&amp;cid=ABT7JLejg_XHFrjX&amp;activation=adfill&amp;vip_mode=no"></script><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>An official with the agency that manages government property said the real estate portfolio, barring Department of Defense buildings, should be cut by &quot;at least 50 percent.&quot;</p><p>Leavitt told reporters that federal workers should &quot;accept the very generous offer&quot; of a deferred resignation.</p><p>She said &quot;competent&quot; replacements would be found for those who &quot;want to rip the American people off.&quot;</p><p>Among the controversies swirling around the Musk plan is how much access the South African-born tycoon is getting to secret government data, including the Treasury&#x27;s entire payment system.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/2/4/musk-takes-reins-of-us-treasury-payments-sparking-alarm-0852">Musk takes reins of US Treasury payments, sparking alarm</a></div><p>Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg TV on Thursday that there was &quot;a lot of misinformation&quot; and that access to such data was only given to two Treasury employees who are working with Musk.</p><p>Bessent said those employees had &quot;read-only&quot; access, meaning they couldn&#x27;t change the data.</p><p>One of those two resigned, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, after it emerged that he had advocated racism and eugenics on social media.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V_44HpnWY28?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Chill&#x27; or big &#x27;con&#x27;? -</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Questions are rife over the buyout, including over whether Trump has the legal right to make the offer and whether the conditions will be honored.</p><p>The plan was first announced in an email sent across most of the vast federal government and titled &quot;Fork in the road&quot; -- the same phrasing as the note Musk sent to employees at Twitter when he bought the social media platform in 2022 and renamed it X.</p><p>Musk says the paid departures are a chance to &quot;take the vacation you always wanted, or just watch movies and chill, while receiving your full government pay and benefits.&quot;</p><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAEyze-tm4MR6kEa&amp;cid=ABT7kH4snqHUdP3o&amp;activation=adfill&amp;vip_mode=no"></script><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>Unions warn that without Congress signing off on the use of federally budgeted money, the agreements may be worthless.</p><p>&quot;Federal employees shouldn&#x27;t be misled by slick talk from unelected billionaires and their lackeys,&quot; said Everett Kelley, president of the large American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).</p><p>An employee in the US Office of Personnel Management, where Musk has put his own staff in key positions, said the plan was to encourage resignations through &quot;panic.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re trying to instill a panic so that people just walk out the door and leave government in a crippled state, which is partly their objective,&quot; the employee told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.</p><p>sms-da/bjt/nro/dw</p><div><br/></div><p>© Agence France-Presse</p>

<p>A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.</p>

A judge on Thursday suspended a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the size of the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout.