In response to a court case brought by AFGE and allies, a federal judge on Feb. 27 ruled that the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) has no authority to fire workers at other agencies.
Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California said OPM’s Jan. 20 memo and Feb. 14 internal email are “illegal” and “should be stopped, rescinded.”
The judge said when federal agencies fire employees for no reason, “that’s just not right in our country,” adding that we can’t “run our agencies with lies.”
“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency,” he stated.
Calling probationary employees the “life blood of agencies,” he said agencies should not lie and stain an employee’s record by saying they had performance issues when they did not.
The judge ordered OPM to immediately notify federal agencies of the ruling, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, Small Business Administration, National Park Service, National Science Foundation, Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of Defense, which was poised to terminate thousands of probationary employees the following day.
He further ordered the federal government to disclose by March 4 the participants on the Feb. 13 call that has been widely reported to have been the occasion when OPM ordered the agencies to terminate probationary employees. He indicated that a longer written order would follow shortly on the heels of the Feb. 27 ruling from the bench.
“This ruling by Judge Alsup is an important initial victory for patriotic Americans across this country who were illegally fired from their jobs by an agency that had no authority to do so,” said AFGE President Everett Kelley. “These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities, only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work. OPM’s direction to agencies to engage in the indiscriminate firing of federal probationary employees is illegal, plain and simple, and our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all.”
The decision follows a ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) that paused the terminations of six probationary employees.
The coalition of plaintiffs on the case include the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE); American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); the Main Street Alliance; the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks; theCommon Defense Civic Engagement; the Western; AFGE Local 1216; AFGE Local 2110; VoteVets; and United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP). They are represented by the law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLPand theState Democracy Defenders Fund (SDDF).
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AFGE will continue to challenge illegal attacks on our members and federal employees nationwide.
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