Mass release of federal employees is illegal, the judge ruled

He temporarily blocked the efforts of the new administration to order the Ministry of Defense and other federal authorities to release thousands of freshly accepted workers, and comply with the law of trade unions and non -profit organizations. The AP and Reuters press agencies reported.

The federal judge in San Francisco William Alsup ordered the Office for Personnel Affairs (OPM) to inform specific federal authorities, including the Ministry of Defense, that OPM has no power to order them to release employees during the probationary period. He stressed that OPM has no power to hire or dismiss employees other than his own.

Republican Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the so -called Office for the Efficiency of State Administration (DOGE), promote unprecedented reduction of federal expenditure and reduction, according to them swell bureaucracy, even through bulk layoffs. The complaint filed by five trade unions and five non -profit organizations is just one of the many lawsuits that have built this effort. Thousands of employees have already been released during the trial period.

Alsup ordered OPM to cancel the circle of January 20 and e-mail from February 14, in which the Federal authorities order to identify employees during the probationary periods who are not « critical » and terminate employment with them.

Alsup also stated that it cannot directly order the Ministry of Defense itself, which should release 5400 employees during the probationary period, or other authorities not to let employees release, as they are not parties to the lawsuit. However, he noted that the mass redundancies of federal employees, launched two weeks ago, can cause extensive damage, including the restriction of the functioning of national parks, scientific research and veterans services.

The trial period of US civil servants usually takes one year. The supporters of the new measures defend the step with the fact that people in the trial period are not automatically entitled to the job. Opponents, on the other hand, say that the instruction will lead to the release of people hired during the reign of Trump's predecessor in the White House of Joe Biden. According to OPM, there were about 200,000 federal employees last year. The total number of civilian employees of the US government is just over two million.

The release of workers during the trial period was prepared from the first day of Trump's entry into the office, when the acting boss of OPM sent to all agencies an orbital in which he ordered them to compile all of their workers during the trial period and send it to the office. In the letter of 20 January, it was stated that it was easier to release these employees.

Trump's administration claims that OPM in his orphan and e-mail merely asked the authorities to assess employees during the probationary period and decide which of them could be potentially released and do not require them.