Six fired federal workers will recover temporarily following a decision this week by the Merit Systems Protection Commission. This is the first step towards a hopeful recovery of the thousands of jobs cut by the Trump administration, as lawyers representing fired employees.
The board, an independent body appealing federal workers about employment measures, announced its decision late Tuesday. It will remain effective until April 10th so that the Special Advisors Office can continue to investigate complaints from fired employees. The six employees come from six different federal agencies.
“I think there is a reasonable basis for believing that each of the six agencies is engaged in prohibited personnel practices,” board member Raymond A. Limon wrote at his order.
The decision could ultimately be broadly applied by thousands of other government officials who were fired for their relatively new status.
Attorney investigating personnel actions, special counsel Hampton Dillinger, and three board chairs who considered the claims, were also fired by Trump earlier this month. They both fight against their own removal through the legal system, and federal judges temporarily revive them.
Dellinger heads the Special Advisory Bureau, a watchdog agency aimed at protecting whistleblowers. He was fired on February 7th, but a federal judge ordered him to suspend his dismissal until March 1st.
The Merit Systems Protection Committee, which Harris is primarily on, includes three members. They are two Democrats, including Harris and one Republican. They were each appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. They have a seven-year term designed to be overlapping. Two of the three members cannot come from the same political party.
In many cases challenged the shooting since Trump took office, several federal judges have directed the plaintiffs to discuss the independent committee set up to deal with them. For six fired probation employees, it is the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The mass shootings, characterised by the Trump administration as a necessary cost-cutting measure, have increased the caseload of the government's independent review board. Last fall, the Merit Systems Protection Board received about 100 new cases a week. Between February 16th and February 22nd, I received 1,845.
On February 21, Dellinger submitted a request to the committee to suspend the firing of six probation employees from the Agriculture, Education, Energy, Housing, Urban Development Department, Veteran Affairs and Personnel Management Department.
Attorneys for the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group hope that the suspension will expand to probation employees, other clients in nine federal agencies who filed complaints with Mr. Dillinger's office. Registering a complaint with his office is the first step to challenge their dismissal.
As of Wednesday, approximately 20,000 probation employees had been fired, according to an analysis by the New York Times.
The firing of a trial at the heart of the claims Dillinger is pursuing before the Merit Protection Commission is just one stage in Trump's strategy of thwarting the federal workforce.
The next phase ongoing on a recent basis has directed agencies to make significant “forced reductions.”
On Wednesday, the Human Resources Administration published agency guidance to implement the “massive” cuts Trump requested in his February 11 executive order.
These cuts could pose additional court challenges.
