A federal judge in California granted a provisional injunction to revive thousands of fired probation workers at federal agencies as part of a lawsuit filed by the Federation of US Government Employees.
The decision by Judge William H. Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California applies to fired probation employees from the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Department of Treasury.
Hours later, Maryland US District Judge James Bredal agreed to 20 Democrat-led states that 18 government agencies that had largely fired probation employees in recent weeks had violated regulations governing federal workers’ layoffs.
At least 30,000 probation workers working for the federal government have been fired as part of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called “government efficiency” efforts.
Many employees dispute this based on positive performance ratings, but were fired for poor performance for the reasons cited.
Alsup said it was a “false” that there are performance issues with fired probation workers.
“It is sad to say that our government fires a good employee and when we know it is good it is based on performance.
The judge also banned the Personnel Management from providing guidance to federal agencies that should lay off employees. ALSUP approved the deposit and ordered further explanations as to whether the administrative channels for dismissed workers to appeal have been destroyed by dismissal at the Appeal Committee and the Special Advisory Bureau.
“(The) Afge is pleased with the orders of Justice Alsup, which is to immediately revive tens of thousands of probation federal employees who have been illegally fired from their jobs by federal agencies and the American people.
“We are grateful for these employees and the important work they do, and AFGE will continue to fight until all unjust and illegally fired federal employees return their work.”
White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt said Thursday that the judge had crossed his boundaries.
“A single judge is trying to unconstitutionally take away the power of employment and dismissal from the administrative sector unconstitutionally,” she said.
Before the judge’s order, the U.S. Department of Justice had refused to testify at court firing Charles Ezell, the deputy director of the Personnel Management Office.
In its previous ruling, Allup said on February 27 that firing prosecutors’ employees was illegal because the Personnel Management Bureau had no authority to order it.
OPM updated its January 20th note on probation employees. The US Government Employee Federation claimed it had revealed admissions that illegally directed the shooting.
“The revision of the OPM in the January 20th memo is a clear approval that the federal agency has illegally directed its massive termination of probational employees, consistent with the recent decision of Justice Allsup, who challenged these illegal dismissals,” the union said in a statement earlier this month. “All agencies must immediately withdraw these illegal terminations and recover all those who have been illegally fired.”
