Federal Board Blocks Thousands of Trump Admin Terminations

The Office of Special Counsel has requested that nearly 6,000 workers be reinstated.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture building in Washington on July 21, 2007. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

A federal appeals board on March 5 ordered the Trump administration to reinstate nearly 6,000 workers who were fired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Cathy Harris, chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, said in the order that evidence presented by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) indicated the department illegally fired some 5,950 workers on probationary status, or newer employees.

Harris said the USDA must reinstate the workers, in an order that is to remain in effect through April 18.

The USDA has not responded to requests for comment.

Harris was granting a request from the OSC, which asked for a stay while it continues to investigate the mass terminations.

Special counsel Hampton Dellinger said in a statement he was grateful for the stay. “My agency will continue to investigate and take appropriate action on prohibited personnel practices including improper terminations of probationary employees. Voluntarily rescinding these hasty and apparently unlawful personnel actions is the right thing to do and avoids the unnecessary wasting of taxpayer dollars,” he said.

In a Feb. 28 filing, the OSC said that the USDA fired workers en masse “without consideration of their individual performance or fitness for federal employment.”

The position was reached after reviewing evidence and interviewing multiple USDA officials.

The terminations happened only because officials determined that the workers were in positions that were not mission-critical, the OSC said in the filing to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The USDA sent identical letters to all of the terminated probationary workers, stating that the termination was based on their performance, but the letters did not explain how the performance was deficient, according to the watchdog. USDA officials told the OSC that they drafted the templates used to execute the mass terminations.

Officials said the mass terminations were prompted by Office of Personnel Management guidance on probationary workers, including a directive to fire employees who were not considered mission-critical.

The OSC said it believed that the USDA terminated the workers in violation of federal law, which states in part that workers shall be protected from “arbitrary action, personal favoritism, or coercion for partisan political purposes.”

During the stay, the OSC would further investigate the matter.

“OSC requested this stay because the thousands of probationary terminations at USDA appear to have been carried out in a manner inconsistent with federal personnel laws,” Dellinger said in a statement. “In most cases, probationary employees may only be terminated if their specific, individual performance or conduct demonstrates that they are unfit for federal employment.”

The Merit Systems Protection Board, which handles federal staffing disputes, on March 3 ordered the OSC to provide the names of the employees who were fired. The office said it complied with the order.

Dellinger already achieved the reinstatement of six terminated workers who he said his office had determined were likely terminated in violation of the law. Raymond A. Limon, one of the board’s members, said that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the firings were violative.

A federal judge recently ruled that Trump’s termination of Dellinger was not in line with a law saying the president may remove the special counsel only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. Under the ruling, Dellinger will remain in his position as the litigation he brought proceeds.