A federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to rescind its instructions directing federal agencies to dismiss thousands of probationary workers Thursday.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup said OPM had no authority to order the mass firings, ordering the government’s human resources office to rescind its Jan. 20 memo telling agencies to “promptly determine whether [probationary] employees should be retained at the agency.” Alsup, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, also said OPM must inform the agencies involved in the lawsuit of his opinion that the layoffs were illegal, though the judge stopped short of ordering a halt in the firings, according to multiple reports.
“I am going to count on the government to do the right thing and go a little bit further than I have ordered and to let some of these agencies know what I have ruled,” Alsup said in his oral ruling, according to The New York Times. The court has yet to release a written ruling.
A coalition of civil service labor unions and nonprofit organizations filed the complaint on behalf of employees within multiple agencies — including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Park Service, the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense — attempting to delay President Donald Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce through the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The ruling comes after some 150 probationary IRS employees were laid off across multiple divisions, with thousands more facing termination in the first round of cuts.
“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe,” to fire or hire workers outside of its own office, the judge said, according to the Associated Press. He also called probationary employees “the lifeblood of our government.”
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — one of the unions leading the suit — celebrated the “first step” decision in an X post Thursday.
“We know this decision is just a first step, but it gives federal employees a respite,” Saunders said. “While they work to protect public health and safety, federal workers have faced constant harassment from unelected billionaires and anti-union extremists.”
Alsup’s decision provides a minor victory for unions trying to slow DOGE’s reduction efforts, as two federal judges recently quashed similar union-led lawsuits to rescue federal workers from staffing purges or prevent DOGE’s access to sensitive data.
DOGE reports $65 billion in federal savings as of Friday.
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