A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when its personnel office ordered massive dismissals of probationary employees in an early push to reduce the size of federal workforce.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco sided with labor unions and nonprofit groups that challenged the move in his Friday ruling. He found that the Office of Personnel Management “unlawfully exceeded its own powers and usurped and exercised powers reserved by Congress to each individual” federal agency to make its own hiring and firing decisions.
The government had argued that OPM merely provided guidance, not directives, but Alsup rejected that defense, writing that the administration “disagrees but does not persuade.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, welcomed the decision, saying it showed that “thousands of probationary workers were wrongfully fired, exposes the sham record the government relied upon, and requires the government to tell the wrongly terminated employees that OPM’s reasoning for firing them was false.”
The case was on the heels of the termination of more than 25,000 probationary employees shortly after Trump took office in January, according to agency declarations submitted in court. Probationary workers often include younger hires beginning federal service, though they can also be older employees transitioning into new roles.
Earlier this year, Alsup had ordered the reinstatement of many of those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court set aside that ruling in April on procedural grounds without weighing in on the merits of the case.
In his latest ruling, Alsup declined to order reinstatement, saying too much time had passed and both the agencies and the workers had moved on. “The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and found new jobs. Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts. The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization. Many probationers would have no post to return to,” he wrote.
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Instead, he ordered most of the defendant agencies to amend personnel records and send letters to those affected clarifying they were not dismissed for poor performance. Agencies exempted from the directive include the State Department and NASA.
