(NewsNation) — As the Trump administration looks to shrink the federal workforce, a federal employee who accepted a deferred resignation offer told NewsNation he was fired anyway.
Nicholas Detter, a former employee with the Department of Agriculture, was among those who accepted the buyout before a Feb. 5 deadline. Detter said he then received an email saying he was fired effective immediately, and he received no explanation behind his termination — which the Office of Personnel Management said was accidental.
“All the way up to the head of my industry, he didn’t have any prior notice,” Detter said. “To this point, no one within my agency knows what to do with an employee like me.”
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The federal buyout program was offered to government employees in late January and promised to pay the salaries and benefits of those who accepted until October. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that 77,000 employees accepted the buyout.
The number of workers who accepted the buyout amounts to less than 4% of the federal workforce. The Trump administration has said it wants to cut the workforce by 10%.
Efforts to reduce the number of employees within the U.S. government are ramping up. The OPM issued a directive Thursday requiring agencies to fire probationary employees, some of whom have been on the job for a year or more.
