A group of US probationary government employees who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump’s purge of the federal workforce filed a lawsuit Tuesday, claiming the mass firings were illegal and should be reversed.
The lawsuit was filed by employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Government Services Administration. In the complaint, they heavily relied on the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and the US Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) conclusions that terminations identical to the terminations of Plaintiffs likely violated applicable regulations and trespassed on due process rights.
The Plaintiffs were unable to directly appeal to the MSPB as their claims did not fall into one of the following three categories: a) they assert that their terminations were the result of their marital status; b) they assert their terminations were politically partisan; or c) they assert that their terminations related to conduct or matters that occurred prior to their appointment. They were able to file claims with the OSC, which resulted in the determination that similar terminations to those of the Plaintiffs were prohibited personnel practices.
In February, OSC referred the matter to MSPB and later that month MSPB decided that it could not order probationary employees back to work pending adjudication. Resulting in the filing of the lawsuit as the Plaintiffs now turn to the courts to address the issues they face. Plaintiffs merely request that they be reinstated into their previous positions so that they can be made whole once more.
The firings are another step in Trump’s plan to decimate the federal workforce since taking office in January. While federal Judges have made decisions relating to other government employees no progress has been made for probationary workers yet.