Six fired federal employees must get their jobs back, at least through April 10, according to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the independent federal agency that hears employee complaints against the government.
The MSPB issued a 45-day stay of the terminations Tuesday evening in response to a request from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which had begun investigating the firings.
"I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of the six agencies engaged in a prohibited personnel practice," stated the order from board member Raymond A. Limon.
The decision comes four days after U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger argued that he had "reasonable grounds" to believe that federal agencies had violated federal statute in terminating six employees who were still on probationary status. The 45-day stay will allow the Office of Special Counsel's investigation to continue.
The six agencies named in the complaint — the departments of Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Personnel Management — have five working days to provide evidence that they are complying with the order.
While probationary employees lack some of the job protections afforded to career civil servants, they cannot be terminated "at will," Dellinger wrote in his filing with the MSPB. Moreover, agencies must inform employees why they are being fired.
None of the six had performance issues, according to the investigation. Instead, Dellinger wrote, the evidence indicates that agencies improperly used the employees' probationary status to accomplish a downsizing of the workforce, without following the proper procedures for doing so.
The fired included disabled veterans working for the departments of Education and Veterans Affairs who would receive preference in a mass layoff done legally.
The Office of Special Counsel took up the case of the six fired employees after receiving a complaint, brought on their behalf by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward and the Alden Law Group.
"These are hardworking individuals," says Michelle Bercovici, a partner with the Alden Law Group. "They're people who want to make this country better."
She is urging the Office of Special Counsel to seek relief for a broader group of fired employees. Dellinger is considering ways to do so, according to his office.
Dellinger himself was fired abruptly by the Trump administration. He sued, noting that under the law, the special counsel may be removed by the president "only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." A judge temporarily reinstated him while his case winds through judicial system.
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