The class certification brings fired probationary employees one step closer to potential reinstatement and sets back the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the federal workforce
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In what is believed to be a first since the Trump administration issued government-wide layoffs, the Merit Systems Protections Board (MSPB) today granted class certification to fired probationary employees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The decision allows fired probationary employees at the agency to join this class action and seek reinstatement.
Though federal courts have slowed the Trump administration’s push to cut down the federal workforce overall, this move marks a major victory for fired probationary workers, who lack many of the protections that other federal workers enjoy, at the MSPB.
“This is heartening news for the scores of probationary workers whose rights have been trampled on and whose lives were turned upside down by what we believe were illegal reductions in force,” said Christopher Bonk, partner at Gilbert Employment Law. “We’re looking forward to continuing our fight to get these employees back to serving the mission they joined the civil service to pursue.”
Leading employment and civil rights attorneys representing federal workers say that the widespread probationary employee layoffs violated at least a dozen laws, regulations, and constitutional protections. The workers argue that the mass terminations constituted a constructive reduction in force (RIF), which require that government agencies consider an employee’s tenure, performance and veteran status when making termination decisions. Regulations also typically require 60 days advance notice of termination in a RIF. Instead, public servants were abruptly terminated, with total disregard for these key protections.
The probationary DHS employees are represented by Brown Goldstein Levy, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, Gilbert Employment Law and James & Hoffman.