Judge Orders Trump to Reinstate Probationary Employees

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to bring back thousands of fired probationary employees, saying their ousters were illegal.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee who sits in California, said the Office of Personnel Management had no authority to direct other agencies to fire the employees.

“It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” the judge said in ruling from the bench. . .

Probationary employees have been on the job for less than a year, or less than two years at some posts. Trump officials said they were easy targets because they hadn’t built years of experience critical to their agencies and, as probationary employees, lacked full civil service protection.

OPM issued a memo telling departments to review their lists of probationary employees and decide which to keep. Departments then carried out waves of firings. (Read more from “Judge Orders Trump to Reinstate Probationary Employees” HERE)