(Miami) Hundreds of American federal employees, licensed during the Elon Musk cost reduction campaign, are called upon to resume work.
The General Services Administration (GSA) gave employees until the end of the week to accept or refuse their reintegration, according to an internal note obtained by the Associated Press. Those who accept must resume their work on October 6, after seven months of paid vacation.
“In the end, the agency found itself dilapidated and in sub-effective,” said Chad Becker, former real estate official of the GSA. “She did not have the staff necessary to perform her basic functions. »»
Mr. Becker, who represents the owners of government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said that GSA has been in “sorting fashion” for months. He said that the sudden reversal of workforce reduction measures reflects how Mr. Musk and his department of government efficiency (DOGE) had gone too far and too quickly.
Last month, the IRS said that it would authorize certain employees who have accepted an offer of resignation to keep their posts. The Labor Department has also reinstated employees who have benefited from a starting allowance, while the national parks service had previously reinstated several dismissed employees.
As of March, thousands of GSA employees left the agency as part of programs encouraging them to resign or take early retirement. Hundreds of others – those referred to in the notice of recall – were dismissed as part of an aggressive campaign aimed at reducing federal workforce. Although these employees no longer present themselves to work, some continue to be paid.
GSA representatives did not answer detailed questions regarding the return to work published on Friday. They also refused to discuss the agency’s workforce, personnel decisions or potential cost -effects caused by the cancellation of its lease termination project.
“The GSA management team has examined the measures taken in terms of personnel and makes adjustments in the interest of the client agencies that we serve and American taxpayers,” said a spokesman for the agency in an email.
The DOGE identified the agency, which had around 12,000 employees at the start of the Trump administration, as a main target of its campaign aimed at reducing fraud, waste and abuses in the federal government. A small group of confidence assistants from Elon Musk, integrated into the GSA headquarters, planned brutal termination of almost half of the 7,500 leases from the federal portfolio. The DOGE also wanted the GSA to sell hundreds of buildings belonging to the federal government in order to achieve billions of savings.
GSA began by sending more than 800 lease termination notices to owners, often without informing government tenants. The agency has also published a list of hundreds of targeted government buildings for sale.
