A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to rescind directives that caused the mass firings of recently hired and promoted federal employees, ruling that the issuing agency had no such power to do so.
“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency,” said Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District for Northern California.
The judge ordered the administration to rescind a Jan. 20 memo from OPM directing agencies to prepare lists of probationary employees and a Feb. 14 memo ordering the dismissal of non-mission-critical probationary employees within three days.
According to court filings, the Defense Department’s planned firing of some 5,400 probationary employees was to start on Fri., Feb. 28. Alsup ordered the Trump administration to notify DOD of his decision.
It was not immediately clear whether Alsup’s order would reinstate employees who have already been fired. The judge said he would follow up shortly with more details on his decision.
Alsup was responding to a lawsuit filed on Feb. 19 by the American Federation of Government Employees and other groups, who argued that the administration had ignored federal laws governing probationary employees and, essentially, had executed reductions in force without following the proper procedures.
OPM and the Justice Department had argued AFGE did not bring the case to the proper jurisdiction and should instead seek remediation before the Federal Labor Relations Authority or the Merit Systems Protection Board. They also argued the president may hire and fire anyone he wants in the executive branch.
Alsup said that firing federal workers without proper cause is “just not right in our country.” He will next hold a hearing on March 13.
The Trump administration also argued that it never ordered the firings.
But on Feb. 13, OPM officials told agency human-resources leaders to begin terminating probationary employees, a source familiar told Government Executive at the time. That call was widely reported. On Feb. 14, OPM sent a follow-up memo instructing agencies to “separate probationary employees that you have not identified as mission-critical no later than end of day Monday, 2/17.”
Alsup said it was unreasonable to suggest that agencies across government simultaneously decided to fire probationary employees on their own volition, and the nation cannot “run our agencies with lies.”
AFGE President Everett Kelley called the decision an “initial victory.”
“OPM’s direction to agencies to engage in the indiscriminate firing of federal probationary employees is illegal—plain and simple—and our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all,” Kelley said.
The setback was the second for the Trump administration’s efforts to fire probationary employees. On Feb. 25, the Merit Systems Protection Board affirmed a finding by the Office of Special Counsel that the firings were likely unlawful, and ordered six fired probationary employees to be at least temporarily reinstated into their jobs. OSC is now looking at expanding its recommendations for a much broader population.
Around Feb. 13, the Trump administration began firing thousands of federal workers who are in their probationary periods—typically, people hired within the past one to two years, but also including veteran employees who have been promoted or transferred to a different job. Such workers have weaker civil service job protections than federal employees whose probationary periods have passed. The legal rationale for quickly dismissing longtime workers is less clear.
The firings are ongoing and were expected to eclipse at least 25,000 this week.
Separately, the Trump administration has directed agencies to institute widespread layoffs of non-probationary employees across government.
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