Elon Musk issues bold warning to US federal employees; ‘Will face dismissal if…’
Elon Musk has proposed a bold new concept that will result in firing of federal employees in the US who fail to come to office for five days a week for work.
Elon Musk has proposed a bold new concept that will result in firing of federal employees in the United States who fail to come to office for five days a week for work.
The proposal, spearheaded by the richest man in the world and former presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, is a part of a bigger scheme to save $2 trillion from the federal budget.
According to the two, federal personnel who uphold “the Covid-era privilege of staying home” shouldn't be paid by American taxpayers.
President-elect Donald Trump selected Musk and Ramaswamy to head the recently established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is expected to have reorganised government agencies and cut spending.
Here's what Musk and Ramaswamy have to say
While Musk, the 53-year-old CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, contributed an estimated £200 million to Trump's campaign, Ramaswamy joined Trump after he decided to withdraw from the race for president.
In a Wall Street Journal article, the duo vowed “mass headcount reductions across the federal bureaucracy.” They mainly targeted civil workers who are reluctant to return to office.
“If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them,” the pair proclaimed, marking a significant shift from the remote-work options provided during the pandemic.
Civil service regulations permit “reductions in force that don't target specific employees,” the two said, outlining their power to enact broad reforms.
“The statute further empowers the president to prescribe rules governing the competitive service,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in their article.
They contended that Trump may take a number of actions, such as “large-scale firings” and shifting federal departments out of Washington.
According to the, the two advantages of the initiative are “a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court”.
They further claimed the new department will focus on more than $500 billion in federal spending annually that is either mismanaged or not authorised by Congress.