An independent federal board has ordered the United States Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 probationary employees fired during President Donald Trump’s controversial efforts to cut the federal workforce.
Cathy Harris, chair of the US Merit Systems Protection Board, issued an order on Wednesday requiring the department to temporarily reinstate 5,600 fired probationary employees for 45 days.
The order applies to probationary workers who have been in their positions for about a year or less and received identical termination letters, stating that they had failed to show that their continued employment “would be in the public interest” based on their performance.
The decision follows allegations from the Office of Special Counsel that the department engaged in prohibited personnel practices during the mass firings, with the board continuing its investigation throughout the reinstatement period.
Harris ordered that the fired workers be “placed in the positions that they held prior to the probationary terminations” for 45 days.
She noted that she found reasonable grounds to believe the agency violated federal laws, and the 45-day period “will minimize the adverse consequences of the apparent prohibited personnel practice.”
The Trump administration attempted to fire Harris but on Tuesday a federal judge in Washington, DC ruled the firing unlawful and blocked her removal from the board before her term ends in three years. The administration is appealing the judge’s ruling.
Among the initial firings were several employees working to fight the current bird flu outbreak-which has led to at least one human death and soaring egg prices-but the department later claimed this had been done “accidentally” and was working to rehire the workers.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, the Trump administration has begun mass firing of thousands of federal workers in what it calls cost cutting, though outlays for employees are only some 6% of federal spending.
Critics charge that the firings are both unlawful-as the money was allocated by Congress, which has that sole power under the Constitution-and reckless, as large numbers of workers have been fired in such critical areas as disaster relief, nuclear safety, and weather forecasts.