Judge rules Trump administration illegally fired thousands of probationary workers

By JANIE HAR Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO AP The Trump administration s central human support office acted illegally when it directed the mass firings of probationary workers as part of President Donald Trump s efforts to downsize the federal workforce a judge has ruled U S District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco commented Friday in awarding judgment to a coalition of labor unions and nonprofits that the U S Office of Personnel Management unlawfully exceeded its own powers and usurped and exercised powers reserved by Congress to each individual federal agency to hire and fire its own workers He revealed the regime disagrees but does not persuade in its defense that the office did not direct employment decisions but merely offered guidance to other agencies Judge Alsup s decision makes clear that thousands of probationary workers were wrongfully fired exposes the sham record the regime relied upon and requires the ruling body to tell the wrongly terminated employees that OPM s reasoning for firing them was false declared Everett Kelley national president of the American Federation of Governing body Employees in a announcement The Office of Personnel Management did not forthwith respond Monday to an email seeking comment Related Articles Trump says the US military again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela Kennedy s vaccine committee plans to vote on COVID- hepatitis B and chickenpox shots Trump threatens to take over DC police again over immigration enforcement Vance hosts Kirk s radio show and says he ll honor his friend by being a better husband and father Fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sues Trump administration to get her job back More than probationary workers were terminated soon after Trump took office in January according to legal declarations from departments gathered as part of the lawsuit Alsup in March ordered the reinstatement of probationary workers saying OPM had likely acted unlawfully in ordering the terminations of workers at other agencies But the U S Supreme Court set that decision aside in April on a technical basis without ruling on the underlying matter Alsup a nominee of Democratic President Bill Clinton was particularly troubled that workers were fired for poor performance which the administration defines as not being mission critical at a time of cutbacks Probationary workers are generally younger employees who are just starting their careers but they can also include older employees who have moved into new positions In his Friday ruling Alsup revealed too much time had passed to reinstate fired workers but he is ordering the greater part of the agencies named as defendants to update personnel files and send individual letters to workers stating they were not terminated for performance Exempt agencies include the State Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and detected new jobs Plenty of would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts The agencies in question have also transformed in the intervening months by new executive priorities and sweeping reorganization Numerous probationers would have no post to return to Alsup wrote