Elon Musk warns federal employees: 'Return to office or face administrative leave'

US President Donald Trump has been sharply critical of federal workers, especially those who want to keep working remotely.

Elon Musk, the billionaire advisor to US President Donald Trump, on Monday said that government workers would be put on administrative leave if they fail to return to the office starting this week.

Elon Musk, the senior advisor to the President of the United States, at the White House. (AFP)

He also said that government employees who have ignored Trump's executive order to return to work have received a warning.

“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk wrote on X. “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”

The latest announcement by Elon Musk comes a day after his team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week.

Musk warned that any employee who failed to respond by the deadline — set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday — would lose their job.

Federal workers have filed a lawsuit arguing that Musk has violated the law with demand, according to AP.

“No OPM rule, regulation, policy, or program has ever, in United States history, purported to require all federal workers to submit reports to OPM,” said the amended complaint, which was filed on behalf of unions, businesses veterans, and conservation groups. It called the threat of mass firings “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”

Donald Trump ends work from home

Soon after he was sworn in as US president on January 20, Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, including one which ended work-from-home options for government employees and directed them to return back to office.

Trump ordered all department and agency chiefs in executive departments to develop an implementation plan by February 7.

US federal agencies have long-standing remote and telework agreements that pre-date the Covid pandemic, according to the Associated Press.

The Republican president has been sharply critical of federal workers, especially those who want to keep working remotely.

"Nobody is gonna work from home,” Trump had said earlier this month, according to AP. “They are gonna be going out, they're gonna play tennis, they're gonna play golf, they're gonna do a lot of things. They're not working.”