Unions seek to rescind mass firings by Trump administration

New York — Several labour groups sued the Trump administration for allegedly firing tens of thousands of probationary employees illegally, as part of its drive to overhaul the federal government.

In a complaint filed on Wednesday night in San Francisco federal court, the groups said the Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal civilian workforce, lacked authority to direct federal agencies on February 13 to fire the employees en masse, ostensibly for performance reasons.

The labour groups said Congress controls and authorises federal employment and related spending by US administrative agencies, and the Office of Personnel Management has no authority to fire federal employees other than those within its own agency.

“OPM, the federal agency charged with implementing this nation's employment laws, in one fell swoop has perpetrated one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country, telling tens of thousands of workers that they are being fired for performance reasons, when they most certainly were not,” the complaint said.

The Office of Personnel Management on Thursday referred a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, are spearheading an unprecedented effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy, including through job cuts.

The first round of mass firings that began last week mainly focused on probationary employees, who typically have less than one year of service or, for some jobs, two years. The recently hired workers have fewer legal protections than other federal employees, but can still only be fired for poor performance or misconduct.

The plaintiffs in Wednesday’s lawsuit include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; AFGE Local 1216 in San Francisco, and the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Healthcare Professionals.

They are seeking to set aside the February 13 directive, and rescind the firings of probationary employees.

Unions have filed several lawsuits challenging Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal workforce in the month since he took office, and are likely to face procedural hurdles in pursuing them.

So far, at least two judges have ruled that unions did not have legal standing to challenge Trump administration initiatives because they could not show how they had been directly harmed.

The unions in Wednesday’s lawsuit said they have standing to sue because they represent many probationary employees and OPM’s actions have undermined their ability to assist those workers in vindicating their rights.

Reuters