Unions Challenge Mass Firing of Federal Probationary Workers (3)

The government’s chief human resources office lacked authority to fire thousands of probationary federal employees, a group of unions argue in a new lawsuit.

The firings were done pursuant to President Donald Trump‘s goal of shrinking the size of the federal workforce, the complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California says. But only Congress controls and authorizes federal employment and related expenditures, and it determined that each agency is responsible for managing its own employees, the American Federation of Government Employees and other unions argue in the suit.

Last week, agency heads were directed by Trump to start the process of “large-scale reductions in force,” focusing on positions with duties “not mandated by statute.”

Since then the firing of tens of thousands of federal employees have been announced or initiated at agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Transportation Security Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The standardized letter that federal agencies were directed to use for the terminations by Office of Personnel Management acting director Charles Ezell falsely stated that the terminations were for performance reasons, according to the lawsuit.

The OPM lacked “constitutional, statutory, or regulatory authority” to order the terminations contrary to congressional wishes “and certainly has no authority to require agencies to perpetrate a massive fraud on the federal workforce by lying about federal workers’ ‘performance,’” the unions contend.

The lawsuit marks the latest legal volley from federal worker unions against the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending by reshaping the size of the federal government. AFGE and other unions representing federal workers have filed multiple legal challenges seeking to block Trump administration moves to “pressure” federal employees to resign and the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempts to access computer systems at various federal agencies, including the government’s HR office.

OPM’s actions violated the separation of powers because the president and executive branch have “no constitutional power to unilaterally enact, amend, or repeal parts of duly enacted statutes,” the complaint says. Congress used multiple authorization statutes to create the executive agencies and gave the agency heads the power to manage their agencies, “including the right to employ and discharge subordinate employees of the agencies and to spend appropriated funds on those positions,” it says.

The mass termination of probationary employees violated the the Administrative Procedure Act because it was arbitrary and capricious and undertaken without notice and comment, the complaint says. OPM’s action also violated the Civil Service Reform Act, which created uniform standards for government agencies and civil service employment, it says.

The lawsuit was filed by the AFGE, AFL-CIO; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO; AFGE Local 1216, and United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals. They seek an injunction stopping the layoffs.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

Altshuler Berzon LLP and State Democracy Defenders Fund represent the plaintiffs.

The case is Am. Fed. of Gov’t Emp. AFL-CIO v. OPM, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-01780, complaint filed 2/19/25.