Judge orders reinstatement for most fired probationary federal workers; the firings were ‘based on a lie’
The Trump administration must reinstate to their jobs federal employees it has fired in the last month at six large departments after a judge on Thursday called the terminations unlawful.
The reinstatements are to take immediate effect, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for Northern California said when issuing his preliminary injunction from the bench, and agencies were directed not to make any excuse for delaying the rehirings. Roughly 24,000 federal employees in their probationary periods—typically those hired within the last one or two years, whom agencies can quickly fire for cause—will regain their jobs as a result of the decision, according to figures compiled by Government Executive.
The order impacts all fired probationary staff from the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury. Alsup said he may extend the injunction to other agencies in the future, as the American Federation of Government Employees and the other groups that brought the lawsuit are seeking.
The judge made clear the Trump administration, like any other, can engage in mass reductions of the federal workforce, but it must do so by following federal statutes and the Constitution. The Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to carry out the firings, Alsup concluded, which he said circumvented those established procedures.
“This is not ‘some wild and crazy judge in San Francisco said some administration cannot engage in a reduction in force,’” Alsup said.
He added that OPM provided a template for federal agencies to use as termination letters for the impacted staff, which suggested employees were being fired for poor performance. He cited an example of an earth science employee at the Agriculture Department being fired after receiving only outstanding performance reviews in explaining that OPM, and the Justice Department lawyers arguing the case, were being dishonest in making that assertion.
“The reason that OPM had wanted to put this based on performance was at least in my view a gimmick to avoid the [RIF laws],” the judge said.
He added: “It’s a sad, sad day when our government would fire a good employee and say it’s based on performance when they know good and well that is based on a lie.”
The judge’s order specifically called for the covered agencies to reinstate all probationary employees fired Feb. 13 or Feb. 14 or any day thereabout and immediately notify them that their terminations were found to be unlawful in court. Agencies should cease using the template OPM provided and the human resources agency is now prohibited from issuing any guidance related to probationary firings. [Continue reading…]