An independent commission says thousands of USDA employees terminated by the Trump Administration will return to their positions for now. The commission said their firing broke the laws that protect career employees from political influence.
Bloomberg Law says the Merit Systems Protection Board found reasonable grounds to believe that USDA violated civil service laws when it fired over 5,000 probationary employees. The Board also ordered USDA to reinstate the temporary employees fired since February 13 because of performance while the Office of Special Counsel investigates the firings.
Reuters says it’s estimated that over 20,000 federal employees have lost their jobs and another 75,000 have taken a buyout of the 2.3-million-member federal civilian workforce.
Probationary workers typically have less than one year of service in their current roles, although some of them are still long-time federal workers.
The Department of Government Efficiency is spearheading a never-before-seen effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
