ALBAWABA - Elon Musk's proposal to cut the number of government employees in the United States has been temporarily halted by a federal court in Massachusetts.
The initiative, which aimed to promote voluntary resignations among government workers, was supposed to terminate at midnight on Thursday, but it has been postponed until Monday while more legal analysis is conducted.
Musk, a well-known billionaire and ardent Trump supporter, was named head of the recently established Department of Government Efficiency. Under his idea, federal workers would have the option of willingly leaving with an eight-month severance payout or risking future firing. More than two million government employees received the offer, but Democratic politicians and labor organizations have questioned its legality.
The proposal has been challenged in court by labor organizations that represent 800,000 federal workers, who contend that the administration is not legally permitted to carry out such layoffs without the consent of Congress. The project has also drawn criticism from the Biden administration, which has cautioned that it may interfere with vital government functions.
Even while the White House acknowledged that more than 40,000 workers had accepted the severance offer, this figure is still rather small when considering the whole federal workforce. Critics have noted that if a significant percentage of their workers leaves, organizations like the Department of Education, the CIA, and USAID may have operating difficulties.
Concerns have been raised by Musk's position in the government over his access to private federal information, especially in the Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an effort to make it clear that Musk's group is unable to alter financial data and has "read-only" access to confidential systems.
On the other hand, detractors contend that the program is intended to terrorize government workers into quitting. Workers have been cautioned by unions not to accept severance agreements that could not be legally binding without legislative consent.
