A federal judge has delayed the Trump administration’s buyout offer for federal employees while litigation continues. It will be delayed until at least Monday, February 10. The previous deadline was Thursday, February 6 at 11:59 PM EST.

The decision was issued by US District Judge George O’Toole in Boston, MA. Another hearing is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

The ruling was issued in response to a case brought by a group of federal employee unions who filed a lawsuit seeking to have the deadline extended. The case sought to “require the government to articulate a policy that is lawful, rather than an arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum which workers may not be able to enforce,” as a press release from AFGE described it.

“We are pleased the court temporarily paused this deadline while arguments are heard about the legality of the deferred resignation program. We continue to believe this program violates the law, and we will continue to aggressively defend our members’ rights,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

According to NBC News, over 60,000 federal employees have accepted the buyout so far. The Trump administration said previously it expected a surge in the number of acceptances as the deadline drew closer and that has happened since it was at about 40,000 yesterday. The Trump administration has also made it clear that federal employees who do not accept the offer could be subject to layoffs and furloughs.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that President Trump is planning to issue an executive order as early as next week that would fire thousands of Department of Health and Human Services employees.

“Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees,” according to the article.

However, the White House denied that there is such an executive order coming out.

CNN also reported that the Trump administration is planning “widespread layoffs” through the use of Reductions in Force (RIF) beginning shortly after the buyout offer deadline expires.

Source