The recent firings of federal employees who were new to their jobs violate federal laws about merit-based hiring and layoffs, lawyers say.
The lawyers for a group of fired probationary workers filed a complaint Friday asking the office that protects federal employees from retaliation to help stop the terminations and reinstate fired workers while they investigate the issue.
Petitioning the Office of the Special Counsel is one way probationary employees can seek to have their jobs reinstated, a former Labor Department official said. These workers tend to have fewer options than permanent employees.
The complaint, brought by lawyers for Democracy Forward and a private law firm, outlines the federal government's complex system of merit-based employment that allows probationary employees – usually in their first year on the job – to compete for their roles and prove their aptitude.
The complaint said probationary employees have to be assessed individually and based on their performance and cannot be fired just because they haven't been on staff for long.
“Mass indiscriminate terminations are, by definition, not based on the performance of the individual employee,” the complaint says.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Office of the Special Counsel did not respond to a request for comment.
Separately, USA TODAY reviewed multiple termination letters to employees at departments including the U.S. Departments of Education, Agriculture and...
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