A federal judge in San Francisco is weighing whether to block the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary employees — typically those in their first or second year in a job.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup is hearing arguments Thursday afternoon in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and civic organizations. They allege that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) unlawfully ordered agencies to carry out the firings.
The plaintiffs have asked the court to not just halt the firings, but to order the government to provide a list of all employees who had been fired and “take all necessary steps” to reinstate them.
Underpinning their argument is the fact that, while OPM handles many human resource functions for the federal workforce, it does not have congressional authority to hire or fire employees of other agencies.
Tens of thousands of probationary employees across the government have been fired over the past month. The notices often share similar language, despite being sent by different agencies. Often, they cite a performance issue, despite the employee having no record of performance problems. Attorneys for the unions charge agencies fired these employees because OPM directed them to do so.
“Statements from officials at multiple federal agencies admit that the agencies carried out the terminations not at their own discretion, but on the direct orders of OPM,” the unions’ attorneys wrote in a court filing.
Attorneys for the Trump administration denied in their own court filing that OPM had created a “mass termination program” as the plaintiffs allege, or otherwise directed agencies to terminate any particular employees based on performance or misconduct.
“OPM asked agencies to engage in a focused review of…
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