Education Department staff warned that Trump buyout offers could be canceled at any time

Top officials at the Department of Education told staff Wednesday that if they accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation package, the education secretary may later cancel it and employees would not have any recourse, potentially leaving them without promised pay.

The Office of Personnel Management sent notices last week to federal employees that if they resign by Feb. 6, they could continue receiving pay and benefits until the end of September. The Trump administration is hoping to get as many as 10% of the workforce to quit as part of a plan to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

But three Education Department officials told NBC News that Rachel Oglesby, the department’s new chief of staff, and Jacqueline Clay, chief human capital officer, described significant caveats to the so-called Fork in the Road offer in an all-staff meeting held over Zoom on Wednesday. The officials did not want to be named for fear of retaliation.

The Education Secretary would be allowed to rescind the agreement, or the government could stop paying, and employees who took the deferred resignation package would waive all legal claims, the three officials said they were told in the meeting. The three employees say they have only seen sample resignation agreements so far, and would need to agree to resign by Thursday evening before they see the actual terms of their separation.

A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said that this was false, and pointed to a memo that states the resignation offer’s “assurances are binding on the government. Were the government to backtrack on its commitments, an employee would be entitled to request a rescission of his or her resignation.” However, the memo includes a sample agreement that includes a clause that agency heads retain the sole discretion to rescind the deal, and employees waive the right to challenge it before the Merit Systems Protection Board, "or any other forum.”

There is deep concern among federal workers that the Trump administration’s buyout offer could turn out to be a bait-and-switch, with the government potentially failing to hold up its end of the bargain. The comments from Education Department management only worsened those concerns, the three employees said.