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Thousands of federal workers got their jobs back yesterday, a month after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agencies to fire employees on probation.
The decision marks the latest roadblock to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s attempts to massively cull the federal workforce. And while many of these employees are celebrating the ability to return to work, the latest court ruling doesn’t mean they’re necessarily safe.
On Thursday, William H. Alsup, a district court judge in California, declared Trump’s decision to fire probationary employees illegal, noting that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), a kind of HR office for federal employees, doesn’t have the authority to hire and fire workers within other departments. He also took particular issue with the way they did it. Last month, the OPM sent a notice to all agencies requiring them to fire all workers on probationary status, along with a termination notice template telling employees they were being fired “based on performance.”
“It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements,” Alsup said on Thursday. He added that it was 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.”
Employees who were terminated from the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Energy, Defense, and Treasury, will now have to be reinstated. The judge also forbade the OPM from providing additional guidance to agencies on which employees they should let go.
But these newly-reinstated federal probationary employees aren’t out of the woods just yet. Reductions in force (also known as RIFs) are still legal for the government to carry out, as long as they’re “done correctly under the law,” Alsup said. “This case isn’t about whether or not the government can terminate people. It’s about if they decide to terminate people, how they must do it.”
The ruling also does not affect this week’s deadline set by the Trump administration requiring all agencies to send the president and the OPM plans for more layoffs. That means that more cuts are on the way.
In the meantime, however, federal worker unions across the country are rejoicing.“AFGE is pleased with Judge Alsup’s order to immediately reinstate tens of thousands of probationary federal employees who were illegally fired from their jobs by an administration hellbent on crippling federal agencies and their work on behalf of the American public,” said Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal worker union.
“We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back.”
Brit Morsebrit.morse@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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