DOGE-terminated civil servants reinstated by Merits Systems Protection Board

 

The Merit Systems Protection Board has announced that it has 

     granted the stays of  probationary employee terminations as sought by the Office of Special Counsel .  The Director Hampton Dellinger has thus blocked the discharge of seven civil service appointees at seven agencies.  Unknown is their longer term fate and that of thousands of fellow federal employees who fell under the axe of the Elon Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency". 

Special Counsel Dellinger  declared on Monday:

“Since the Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1978, the merit system principles have guided how federal government agencies hire, manage, and, if necessary, remove federal employees. These principles establish that all federal employees, including those in a probationary status, should be evaluated based on individual performance."

Dellinger added: “Firing probationary employees without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law, particularly the provisions establishing rules for reductions in force. Because Congress has directed that OSC 'shall' protect government employees from PPPs, I believe I have a responsibility to request a stay of these actions while my agency continues to investigate further the apparent violation of federal personnel laws."

The ultimate fate of even the handful of  civil servants saved from termination by the Musk-led "DOGE" remains uncertain. But Merit Systems Protection Board member Raymond A. Limon today ordered a 45 day stay of the terminations which were not rooted in any misconduct by the civil servants.

Probationary employees, after one year, have certain rights recognized by the Merit Systems Protection Board.  The Board itself has published a fact sheet on the rights of probationary civil servants.

Attorney Hampton Dellinger, confirmed by the Senate in February 2024,  is the Director of the Office of Special Counsel which protects civil service employees from partisan or other improper discipline or discharge.  Dellinger was himself discharged by Trump but reinstated - at least temporarily - by US. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.  She is preparing an opinon, likely to support an appealable preliminary injunction in favor of the Senate-confirmed Dellinger. Dellinger successfully obtained a TRO putting back on the job six employees of six government agencies.

 Today, the New York Times reports,  Raymond A. Limon, a Merit Systems Protection Board member, ordered the civil servants reinstated, just before the TRO expired.  Although only six are the subject of the order, the ruling could serve as precedent to protect  the twenty thousand or more United States government civil servants who have been fired by the Elon Musk-led non-statutory entitly labeled "Department of Government Efficiency", reports NPR.

The fate of the federal workers is highly uncertain if the Trump administration pursues the matter.