Trump admin vows to rehire 25,000 sacked workers after court ruling

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has admitted for the first time that it dismissed nearly 25,000 recently hired federal workers and says it is now working to reinstate them after a court ruled the mass firings were likely unlawful.

The filings state that federal agencies are working to bring all of them back after a judge ruled that their dismissals were likely unlawful.

The filings, submitted late on Monday in a federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, included statements from officials at 18 agencies, all of whom confirmed that the reinstated probationary workers were being placed on administrative leave, at least temporarily.

The mass sackings, part of Trump’s broader purge of the federal workforce, were widely reported. However, the court filings represent the administration’s first full accounting of the terminations.

Most agencies reported sacking a few hundred workers. The Treasury Department dismissed approximately 7,600 people, the Department of Agriculture around 5,700, and the Department of Health and Human Services more than 3,200, according to the filings.

On 13 March, US District Judge James Bredar ruled that the mass dismissals of probationary workers, which began last month, were unlawful and ordered their reinstatement pending further litigation.

The ruling did not prohibit agencies from dismissing workers but criticised the manner in which the mass sackings were conducted. The court stated that agencies should have followed proper procedures for large-scale redundancies.

Probationary workers typically have less than one year of service in their current roles, although some have been long-time federal employees.

Bredar, in a brief order on Tuesday, noted that the agencies “have made meaningful progress toward compliance” with his ruling. He ordered them to provide an update on their reinstatement efforts by Monday afternoon and said he expected “substantial compliance.”

Bredar’s ruling followed a lawsuit filed by 19 Democrat-led states and Washington, D.C., arguing that the mass dismissals would trigger a surge in unemployment claims and an increased demand for state-funded social services.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office, which is leading the lawsuit, stated that it was reviewing the court filings.

The Trump administration has appealed Bredar’s ruling and, on Monday, requested that a Richmond, Virginia-based appeals court put the order on hold while the case proceeds.

Former probationary workers from the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service, and the General Services Administration told Reuters they had received emails informing them of their reinstatement on full pay but placing them on administrative leave.

One reinstated probationary worker at the General Services Administration, which oversees government real estate, said he still expected to be ultimately dismissed. However, he acknowledged that receiving pay and benefits in the meantime was a short-term relief. “My family has health insurance, and this gives me a little bit of runway to figure out what’s next,” he said.

San Francisco Ruling

Hours before Bredar issued his 13 March ruling, a federal judge in San Francisco had also ordered the reinstatement of probationary workers at six agencies, including five covered by Bredar’s ruling and the US Department of Defense. The administration has also appealed that decision.

US District Judge William Alsup, in an order on Monday, criticised the administration’s decision to place probationary employees on administrative leave instead of allowing them to return to work. He said this did not comply with his order to reinstate the workers, as it failed to restore government services as intended.

The US Department of Justice, responding to Alsup on Tuesday, argued that placing workers on leave was the first step towards full reinstatement and assured that “administrative leave is not being used to skirt the requirement of reinstatement.”

In the Baltimore court filings late Monday, agency officials said they had either reinstated all dismissed employees or were in the process of doing so. They acknowledged that bringing back such large numbers of workers had caused confusion and disruption.

Officials also warned that an appeal court’s decision to overturn Bredar’s order could allow agencies to dismiss the workers once again, subjecting them to multiple changes in their employment status within weeks.

“The tremendous uncertainty associated with this confusion and these administrative burdens impede supervisors from appropriately managing their workforce,” Mark Green, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of the Interior, wrote in one of the filings. “Work schedules and assignments are effectively being tied to hearing and briefing schedules set by the courts.”

Bredar has scheduled a hearing for 26 March to determine whether his ruling should remain in place while the lawsuit continues, a process that could take months or even longer to resolve.