Judge stops dismissals of employees on probation
The wave of layoffs driven by US President Trump and Elon Musk is apparently illegal. Unions have filed a lawsuit.
A US federal judge has put a stop, at least temporarily, to the dismantling of the government apparatus by US President Donald Trump. Judge William Alsup ruled on Thursday (local time) in San Francisco that the mass dismissals of federal employees during their probationary period were probably unlawful.
Unions and nonprofit organizations filed suit last week seeking a temporary restraining order, which Alsup granted. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is responsible for managing federal personnel, "has no authority under any law in the history of the universe to hire or fire employees except its own," Alsup said.
He followed the argument of the prosecution, who also said that the personnel authority lacked the authority to make the terminations. They also claimed that the dismissals were based on a lie about the employees' alleged poor performance .
About 200,000 employees on probation
The government's lawyers argued that the Human Resources Office did not order the layoffs itself, but asked the relevant federal agencies to determine whether the probationary employees were suitable for continued employment. Probationary employees, they argued, have no guarantee of employment.
There are an estimated 200,000 federal agency workers who are on probationary leave -- typically employees who have been on the job for less than a year. About 15,000 of them are employed in California and provide services ranging from fire prevention to veterans care, the complaint said. Thousands have already been laid off.
The lawsuit is one of several challenging the Trump administration's efforts to significantly reduce the United States federal workforce.
