A soft-focus shot of downtown DC reflects the uncertainty clouding the future of federal employment. In one instance, HR staff were reportedly called back to work on RIFs and then ordered to RIF themselves. Image: jorik/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA federal judge’s order blocking indefinitely RIF notices issued since the start of the partial government shutdown October 1—even if those RIFs had been in planning before that date—cites statements from affected employees that paint a “chaotic picture, with employees wondering what is happening and no one at the agencies able to guide them.”
While those findings were not themselves the basis for the permanent injunction—which is based on a preliminary finding that unions challenging the RIFs are likely to prevail in their argument that OMB and OPM guidance telling agencies to carry them out is invalid—the recitation of the facts includes (in the court’s words):
- “Some employees did not even realize the clock was ticking on their pre-termination notice period because their RIF notices were sent to government e-mail accounts, and they were either unable or told not to access work e-mail during the shutdown.
- “RIF notices are going out with errors in them, leading employees to wonder whether their service dates and benefits are being properly calculated or whether they are even supposed to be subject to a RIF at all.
- RIF notices are going out with errors in them; they are being sent to employees’ work e-mail addresses, which furloughed employees have been told they may not check; they are being issued in error and rescinded shortly after; they are being issued by Human Resources staff called back to work on RIFs and then ordered to RIF themselves.
The court added, “For some employees, this is the second time they have received RIF notices this year. Employees were RIF’d earlier this year, terminated, reinstated, and are now being RIF’d again. Workers have filed declaration upon declaration chronicling the stress they have lived under this year, compounded by the government shutdown and now RIF notices on top of that.”
The court cited one RIF’d employee HUD who previously served in the Air Force who said, ‘During all that time, including during my combat deployment, I have never gone through anything as traumatizing as what I am now experiencing.’”
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