Trump moves to close entries to government worker buyout programme
21 hours ago Mike Wendling BBC News
Reuters Musk standing with Trump speaking and sitting down behind a desk in front of him, in the Oval Office. Reuters Elon Musk has spearheaded Donald Trump's cost-cutting program
The Trump administration has said it will close entries to a programme designed to shrink the number of US government employees by incentivising resignations and proceed with the next stages.
The announcement was made on Wednesday, and followed a ruling from a judge who said the programme, which offered workers eight months of pay if they resign, could move ahead.
US District Judge George O'Toole in Boston said unions who had sued to stop the programme did not have legal standing.
About 75,000 federal employees opted into the programme before it was closed, according to US media reports. [...] After initially granting an injunction pausing the program, Judge O'Toole said that the unions do not have the "required direct stake" in the issue to challenge it in court.
The White House had no immediate comment on the ruling.
In a statement, AFGE National President Everett Kelley called the ruling a "setback" but said that the union's lawyers were assessing next steps.
"We continue to maintain it is illegal to force American citizens who have dedicated their careers to public service to make a decision, in a few short days, without adequate information, about whether to uproot their families and leave their careers for what amounts to an unfunded IOU from Elon Musk," he said.
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