U.S President Donald Trump, right, walks with Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, as he arrives to deliver remarks at the Great Hall of the Department of Justice, March 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C. In an hour long campaign style speech filled with grievances, Trump vowed revenge against his enemies. Image: Daniel Torok/White House/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
By: FEDweek StaffUPDATED: The federal workplace has entered an even higher level of disruption as agency workforces churn under the impact of directives from the Trump administration for deep cuts in employment, while agencies meanwhile say they are working to comply with court orders to reinstate many of those already laid off.
Separate court rulings late last week required reinstating, at least temporarily, what likely would be the large majority of the estimated 24,000 or more probationary employees laid off to date. One judge followed an earlier temporary order with a permanent injunction requiring Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs departments to offer restoration to probationers.
The other case extended to nearly every substantial-sized agency, requiring offers of reinstatement unless the employee was “actually terminated on the basis of a good-faith, individualized determination” of poor performance. That however is effective only through March 27 pending another hearing.
Both judges also ordered agencies to stop firing probationers and to report on their compliance with the requirements for reinstatement.
In submissions Monday to the judge in the latter case, more than a dozen Cabinet departments and independent agencies used identical language in saying that “reinstatement of removed employees to full duty status would impose substantial burdens [on the agency}, cause significant confusion, and cause turmoil for the terminated employees.” Each also raised the prospect of the court’s order being overturned on appeal.
However, each also cited steps such as notifying affected employees by email that their firings were rescinded by a court order and putting them on paid leave status pending a return to the workplace, and beginning to calculate back pay. Several reported that employees are being onboarded again, including going through required upfront training, filling out paperwork, obtaining new security badges, reenrolling in benefits programs and the like.
Agriculture, the department with the most employees affected by that court order—which did not extend to DoD, covered by the other—reported that it has reinstated all 5,700 such employees with back pay. That department however was under an earlier separate reinstatement order from the MSPB.
Those filings also revealed substantial differences among agencies in how they approached the firings, with Commerce having fired about 800 of its 9,000 probationers and the VA about 1,700 of its 46,000—while several fired about half of theirs and several others apparently fired all of them.
Raising further uncertainty is that the administration has filed appeals in both lawsuits; that some affected employees were in unpaid leave status at the time of their firing; that some affected agencies already had moved to call back some fired probationers; and that some have found other jobs or simply do not wish to return to the government.
One reason for the latter attitude is that agencies are preparing to conduct reductions in force under a February executive order. Among the grounds for the court and MSPB orders is that the layoffs of probationers were effectively RIFs and that agencies did not follow the requirements for them; however, they did not bar agencies from conducting RIFs, and since length of service is one of the factors that determines who is retained, probationary employees who return could soon find themselves laid off again.
The executive order required agencies to submit to OMB and OPM by last Thursday (March 13) lists of functions to target outside of areas involving law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety. Early indications are that deep job cuts are planned in many.
OPM meanwhile has told agencies to review their union contracts for provisions that might slow or restrict RIFs and to treat them as unenforceable. However, in a sign of the union pushback that likely will occur across the government, the NTEU union has called to the attention of the IRS provisions in their contract that for example give the union additional advance notice rights, saying that it will deem any violation to be an unfair labor practice potentially the subject of a complaint to the FLRA.
The next step under the RIF order is for agencies to submit by April 14 specific plans for conducting RIFs, reorganizing components, and limiting hiring moving forward. The standard notice period to affected employees is 60 days but OPM encouraged agencies to ask permission to reduce it to 30, meaning layoffs beginning in the May-June timeframe in many cases.
In the meantime, several agencies have indicated that they will use buyout and early retirement offers to entice voluntary separations and reduce involuntary ones, making a fluid situation for potentially affected employees.
At the same time, the impact of the return-to-office directive still is being felt, especially by employees who had been in “remote” status—not expected to report regularly to an agency facility. Some of them have found themselves assigned to regional offices or other facilities great distances from where they have been working from home, leaving them with difficult choices of relocating or leaving their jobs.
Also late last week, President Trump issued an executive order requiring seven federal entities to reduce their operations and personnel “to the minimum presence and function required by law.” They are the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, United States Agency for Global Media, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Institute of Museum and Library Services, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and Minority Business Development Agency.
Large Share of Federal Workforce about to Experience a Payless Pay Period
OPM Details Coverage Changes, Plan Dropouts for FEHB/PSHB in 2026
OMB Says Federal Workforce RIFs are Starting as Shutdown Drags On
Financial Impact of Shutdown Starts to Hit Home; WH Threatens No Back Pay
Surge of Retirement Applications Is in the Pipeline, Says OPM
See also,
TSP Takes Step toward Upcoming In-Plan Roth Conversions
5 Steps to Protect Your Federal Job During the Shutdown
Over 30K TSP Accounts Have Crossed the Million Mark in 2025
The Best Ages for Federal Employees to Retire
