Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES—According to AFGE lawsuit, new Fork offers have gone out, (Apr 3, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:AFL-CIO | American Federation of Government Employees | Office of Personnel Management | U.S. Department of Defense
By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.
As of the time that AFGE amended their complaint, employees at the SBA, DOD, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media had received either an email or memo regarding the “deferred resignation program.”
In an amended opinion filed in the lawsuit brought in early February by the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, against the Office of Personnel Management, the AFGE alleges that the Fork program has been “reopened” for employees of three agencies—USAGM, SBA, and the DOD.
USAGM employees, they allege, received a mass email on March 28, 2025, offering them the same terms and with the same OPM FAQs as the Fork program previously offered to other federal workers. The email, a copy of which is included in the complaint, was sent from “HR Customer Service” and states that the program will be available through April 9, 2025.
SBA workers received a similar email on March 29, 2025, the complaint alleges, including a copy of the email, and states that the offer is available through April 7. It also states there “will be no extensions.”
DOD also announced the opening of the Fork, via a memo, the amended complaint alleges, citing a news story on the U.S. Department of Defense’s website.
The complaint states:
“No new analysis, no new reasoning, no new justifications, and certainly no notice and comment accompanied these targeted re-openings of the Fork Directive. Nor was there any recognition that these re-openings again contradicted the terms of OPM’s first Fork Directive, which compelled workers to accept the Fork under threat that it would only remain open for nine days. Indeed, the fact that the announcements were released by each agency shows OPM knew it acted unlawfully when it implemented and released the Fork Directive the first time.”
“Other mass layoff programs are also in the works,” the complaint contends. “There is no reason to believe that any will comply with the APA or other legal requirements.”
News: PublicEmployees AgencyNews Layoffs Discharge