Lawyers file appeals for thousands of workers, Trump fired

By Brian Witte, Associated Press

Lawyers said on Thursday that they filed classroom action for a federal council for thousands of people The workers fired by President Donald Trump.

Several appeals have already been filed against several federal agencies, with plans to bring another 15 to thousands of fired federal workers, said Christopher Bonk, a partner of Gilbert’s employment law.

While several trials have been filed in the Federal court against Trump’s administration on mass termination, the appeals announced on Thursday take legal measures to a federal council that is an independent agency. The Board of Directors is responsible for protecting the employees of the federal government from political reprisals or reprisals for denunciation.

Calls, which try to reinstall employees at work, as well as payment back, claim that mass redundancies have not been individualized actions, but have been large-scale endings for organizational reasons, known as a reduction of force, which have specific regulations to be respected.

For example, regulations require government agencies to consider mandate, performance and veteran status of an employee when making termination decisions, lawyers said. Also, the regulations usually require a prior notification of 60 days of termination, in a reduction of force.

“The Trump administration here willingly ignored the law for these procedures and we have already seen the confusion and the resulting damage that were made to the public service,” said Bonk, whose company is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, in a call with journalists.

Trump said he was targeting fraud, waste and abuse in a swollen federal government. His president and counselor Elon Musk The Government’s efficiency department fired both new and career workers, telling the Agency’s leaders to plan “Large discounts in force.”

The test workers have been targeted for redundancies throughout the federal government, because they are usually new in the workplace and do not have a complete protection of the public service. Often they were briefly informed that they were fired for weak performance.

Daniel Rosenthal, a partner at James & Hoffman, based in Washington, said the redundancies violated numerous regulations, laws and constitutional provisions.

“There was no notice in advance, no separation payment and no examination of their qualifications or their performance at work,” Rosenthal said.

Allison Keating, who was a test employee at the US Fish and Wild Animal Service, who lost his job last month, said during the call with lawyers that he is among the thousands of federal federal workers who are now fighting with how to pay the invoices and a mortgage.

“I am just a person from thousands of people who are in this devastating situation that changes life at this time, and while it has a major impact on our lives and our families at this time, losing so much public service throughout the country will be far away and will reach the whole society,” said Keating.

In general, the test workers have a limited appeal before the Board of Directors, but Rosenthal said that it is clear from regulations and precedent of the Board of Directors that an “inadequate reduction of force is something that almost any employee can challenge directly to the MSPB, including a evidence or process employee.”

“These class actions refer to justice for federal employees,” Rosenthal said. “We are with others who try to stop the administration in court – work unions and non -profit that work importantly.”

The administrative judges of the Council for the Protection of Merit Systems issue approximately 5,000 decisions annually. The three members of the Board of Directors are nominated by the president and are confirmed by the Senate. Members meet terms of seven years. No more than two of them can come from the same political party.

Trump, Republican, tried to remove one of the members of the Board of Directors, Cathy Harris, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. However, a federal judge has decided that Harris, who is the chairman of the Board of Directors, cannot be fired by Trump “After will.”

The US district judge Rudolph Contreras decided on Tuesday that the attempt to dismiss it was illegal, because Trump did not seek to remove it for “inefficiency, debt neglect or defects.”

Originally published: March 6, 2025 at 14:58 CST