On Thursday, a United States federal judge ordered six federal agencies to hire back thousands of workers who were fired in the government downsizing efforts by President Donald Trump.
Judge William Alsup claims that using the justification of “poor performance” to lay off people last month was just “a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements.”
Clinton appointee Judge William Alsup says the Trump Admin has to rehire 30,000 laid off probationary hires. He says that trying to cut headcount is a "sham" and actually it's legally mandatory for taxpayers to keep paying them.
Ruling on a lawsuit brought by employee unions, Alsup ordered the departments of the Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy and Interior to reinstate anyone on probation who was improperly fired.
“It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie,” said Alsup at a hearing at the US District Court in San Francisco.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut federal government spending programs and firing tens of thousands of the more-than two million employees on the federal payroll.
His actions have faced pushback from the courts, with several judges issuing injunctions intended to halt them.
On Thursday, the judge stated that although Trump was within his rights to downsize staff, it has to be done with proper justification – citing “reduction in force” orders by numerous agencies.
“If it’s done right, there can be a reduction in force within an agency, that has to be true,” Alsup said. “Congress itself has said you can have an agency do a reduction in force, if it’s done correctly under the law.”
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