Fired Labor Department Employees Reinstated in Latest Success for Non-Partisan Civil Service

Washington, D.C. – Following two decisions in the past two weeks by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) against the Trump administration’s mass terminations of probationary federal employees in response to action by Democracy Forward and its co-counsel Alden Law Group, Bloomberg News has reported that the U.S. Department of Labor has reinstated all probationary federal employees unlawfully terminated.

Acting on Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group’s complaint filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), the MSPB this week ordered that over 5,000 workers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) be reinstated, after previously ordering back to work the 6 employees on whose behalf we initially filed the complaint. Immediately following the USDA decision, Democracy Forward called on federal agencies to reinstate all of their probationary employees.

“This was never about merit, but about power. Democracy Forward has relentlessly pushed the administration to reverse this unlawful policy, and we will continue to fight for a civil service that serves the American people,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “Yesterday, Democracy Forward called on agencies to reinstate all of the terminated probationary employees; and today the Labor Department has done that. Every other agency should follow their lead and put these workers back on the job immediately.”

“This decision is a critical step toward undoing an unlawful and deeply harmful policy to undermine America’s civil service. As the MSPB has made clear, these mass terminations are baseless–targeting workers not for their performance but as part of a purge of nonpartisan federal employees,” said Rob Shriver, Managing Director of Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong. “We look forward to celebrating further reinstatements as agencies recognize that these unlawful actions must be remedied.”

Resources for Civil Servants are available at www.civilservicestrong.org.  

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