Series of Decisions Have Restored Employment to Some Probationary Employees, But Too Many Remain 

Washington, DC – This Friday, March 14, 2025, marks 30 days since President Trump’s unlawful mass termination of probationary employees within the federal workforce began, acting on recommendations from Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” It will also serve as the last day for the initial group of fired employees to appeal their terminations to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Democracy Forward, the legal organization on the frontlines of holding the administration accountable to the law, today issued an urgent call to action to restore all remaining fired employees immediately.

A number of recent decisions to restore terminated employees – following a complaint filed by Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) – have occurred at the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and as part of Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group, PLLC’s initial complaint. In addition, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has walked back its own directive, asserting that the decision to fire (or restore) staff is in the hands of agency leaders.

Immediately following their first successful decision with the MSPB, Democracy Forward and Alden Group, PLLC filed a supplemental request, urging the OSC to broaden its stay request class-wide to include the tens of thousands of probationary employees who were unlawfully terminated by the Trump-Vance administration. Since then, former Special Counsel to the OSC Hampton Dellinger has withdrawn his legal challenge to his own firing by the President. The President also attempted to fire a member of the MSPB, which was overturned. 

Before he was terminated, Dellinger called for the “voluntarily rescinding [of] these hasty and apparently unlawful personnel actions” because it is “the right thing to do and avoids the unnecessary wasting of taxpayer dollars.”

“The Trump-Musk assault on non-partisan civil servants, without regard to their position or individual performance, is illegal and they know it. That’s why the President attempted to fire members of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Office of Special Counsel, and why OPM is now walking back its own guidance,” said Skye Perryman, President & CEO of Democracy Forward. “The President’s firing of people in positions of leadership who refuse to implement his harmful and unlawful actions doesn’t make those actions legal. Democracy Forward will continue to fight for the reinstatement of probationary workers who work every day for the American people.”

The legal rationale from the MSPB’s previous two orders applies to every probationary worker:  these mass terminations were carried out without regard to individual employee performance or conduct and without following appropriate layoff procedures. 

“Reinstatements have already been ordered for thousands of employees, and they need to happen for every probationary employee subject to these mass terminations,” said Rob Shriver, Managing Director of Democracy Forward’s Civil Service Strong. “The OSC should return to the MSPB immediately to request that the Board broaden the relief we have requested and order all agencies to put all probationary employees who were mass terminated back on the job. And the MSPB should act on that request as soon as it is received. The non-partisan civil service is depending on us to get this right.”

While we await further action from agencies, OSC, and the MSPB, civil servants can file their own appeal through the MSPB’s e-appeal portal. Civil Service Strong has developed a tutorial to assist those who wish to do so. Further guidance for probationary employees who have been subject to mass terminations is also available here.   

Additional Resources for civil servants are available at www.civilservicestrong.org and information regarding Democracy Forward’s litigation to protect the civil service is available at www.democracyforward.org 

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