Federal Protections Board Orders USDA to Reinstate 5k Workers

A board that protects the rights of federal employees ordered the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reinstate over 5,000 probationary workers fired by the Trump administration.

The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB)’s stay was requested by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) last week, which is currently investigating the legality of the USDA’s terminations.

The stay specifically requires USDA to rescind the terminations for 45 days. It’s a significant, though temporary, win for the thousands of probationary federal workers who have been fired as a result of President Donald Trump’s campaign to cripple and disembowel the federal government.

In a statement, Hampton Dellinger, the head of the OSC who is currently challenging his own termination, thanked the MSPB for the stay and asked other federal agencies to reverse illegal firings.

“Agencies are best positioned to determine the employees impacted by these mass terminations,” Dellinger said. “That’s why I am calling on all federal agencies to voluntarily and immediately rescind any unlawful terminations of probationary employees.”

Last week, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated federal law in firing Dellinger.

Cathy Harris, the chair of the MSPB, is also suing the Trump administration over its attempt to fire her. A federal court yesterday found that the Trump administration illegally dismissed her, as well. 

Mass firings of probationary federal employees ramped up after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a Feb. 14 memo directed federal agencies to “separate probationary employees you have not identified as mission-critical.”

A federal judge in California last week ruled that OPM’s directive was illegal and ordered it to be rescinded. However, the judge lacked the ability to order probationary employees to be reinstated.