BOSTON (AP) 鈥 President Donald Trump's plan to downsize the federal workforce remains on hold after a courtroom hearing on Monday afternoon.
It's the latest example of how the Republican president's ambitious plans .
U.S. District Judge George O鈥橳oole Jr. had the deferred resignation program, commonly described as a buyout, last week.
On Monday, he said the stay would remain in place until he issues a ruling. It's unclear when that could happen.
Trump wants to use financial incentives to encourage government employees to quit. According to the White House, 65,000 workers had taken the government up on its offer as of Friday.
He criticized people who want to keep working remotely while talking with reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
鈥淣obody is gonna work from home,鈥 Trump said. "They are gonna be going out, they鈥檙e gonna play tennis, they鈥檙e gonna play golf, they鈥檙e gonna do a lot of things. They鈥檙e not working.鈥
The deferred resignation program has been spearheaded by Elon Musk, who is serving as Trump鈥檚 top adviser for reducing federal spending. Under the plan, employees can stop working and get paid until Sept. 30.
But labor unions said the plan is illegal. They asked for O'Toole to keep it on hold and prevent the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, from soliciting more workers to sign up.
Elena Goldstein, speaking for the workers, said there were 鈥渟erious questions鈥 about the plan's rationale and legality.
鈥淥PM seems to making this up as they are going along,鈥 she said.
She said the program was an 鈥渦nprecedented action鈥 on an 鈥渦nprecedented timeline," and she described it as a pretext to remove workers and replace them with people aligned with the administration.
Eric Hamilton, a Justice Department lawyer, called the plan a 鈥渉umane off ramp鈥 for federal employees who may have structured their lives around working remotely and have been ordered to return to government buildings.
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Megerian reported from Washington.
