COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Central Ohio employees are among the roughly two million federal employees who have just days to decide on what to do about an offer sent by President Donald Trump's administration.
Under the offer federal employees received last week, if they accept, they agree to resign and would be paid through September.
“It’s insane, there’s so much going on that it’s frightening everyone," said Shaun D. Sanders, president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1148, the union representing federal employees.
He said that since the initial offer, additional and sometimes confusing messaging has been sent out.
“Unfortunately, at our local level as far as our base, our higher management, they have no clue either,” Sanders said. “They just start getting some information on this thing and then two days later, we got something else. So it's chaos, it's just chaos right now."
The union represents many of the employees at the Defense Supply Center Columbus. While Sanders could not provide a specific number, he says he knows of some who have accepted the offer.
“It’s kind of scary because I don't want to make or make anybody feel like I'm telling them they should do something, but as AFGE, as a whole, we’re reminding our employees that this offer may not be a valid offer," Sanders said.
Veterans Affairs (VA) employees also received the offer. A representative for the VA locally said veterans' healthcare will not be impacted by the offer.
Nationally, AFGE also includes VA workers and social security employees. AFGE District 6 includes Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
“It would be a brain drain on the federal government if members decided to accept it,” Arnold Scott, AFGE sixth district national vice president, said. “Most of the federal workers I know are dedicated workers and they’re there to serve the public. What we’ve told them is they need to be careful in what they do because even though the administration is saying they’re going to give you this offer, there’s no guarantees because Congress is the one with the purse and Congress hasn’t approved anything.”
Sanders said his colleagues have been trying to get more answers but have not been provided answers to specific questions.
"The answers we’re receiving are FAQs, frequently asked questions, they’re not specific to each employee that's requesting the information, so a group of employees sent out, ‘Hey, I need this information, I need this information to make this decision of my lifetime,’ and they’re sending out a document that says frequently asked questions from OPM,” Sanders said. “There’s nothing personal about it.”
The Defense Supply Center Columbus said specific numbers of employees who've accepted the offer would need to come from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. NBC4 has reached out but has not heard back.
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