Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—Federal workforce purge continues per questionable OPM mandate; unions file new lawsuit, (Feb 21, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:AFL-CIO | American Federation of Government Employees | Health Care Professionals, LLC | National Institutes of Health | National Science Foundation | Office of Personnel Management | SpaceX
By Pamela Wolf, J.D.
Some agencies have “confirmed that the notices of termination mandated by OPM were false, because the agencies were not firing the workers for performance reasons,” unions allege.
As the so-called “purge” of the federal workforce continues, push-back against the Trump Administration is rising, including the filing of numerous lawsuits. Just keeping track of which agencies have lost employees can be difficult, given the speed at which the Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is making workforce cuts. Democratic committee leaders and various media outlets continue to track the cuts, sometimes questioning the motivation behind them, and making sure that voters understand which agencies (and their subagencies) have been targeted, presumably to underscore the potential impact on everyday Americans.
New lawsuit questions motivation behind terminations. On February 19, the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO (AFGE), American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO (AFSCME), AFGE Local 1216, and United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, AFSCME, AFLCIO (UNAC/UHCP) filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in California. The unions are asking the court to enjoin the terminations of what they contend are “tens of thousands of federal employees in contravention of federal constitutional and statutory law.” They filed suit against Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its Acting Director Charles Ezell.
According to the unions, OPM terminated federal employees “by sending them standardized notices of termination, drafted by OPM, that falsely state that the terminations are for performance reasons.”
Who are ‘probationary employees?’ The unions noted that “probationary employees” are employees of the competitive service in their first year of employment, and employees of the excepted service in their first two years of employment. This group of employees include experienced federal employees who have recently become employed in a new position or a new agency.
OPM lacks authority to direct terminations. “OPM’s directive that federal agencies terminate these employees en masse, on pretextual grounds, seeks to further the newly elected Presidential Administration’s policy goals of dramatically curtailing the size and spending of the federal government,” according to the unions. But “Congress, not OPM, controls and authorizes federal employment and related spending by the federal administrative agencies, and Congress has determined that each agency is responsible for managing its own employees,” the unions argue. OPM does not have constitutional, statutory, or regulatory authority to order federal agencies to terminate employees in “this fashion that Congress has authorized those agencies to hire and manage, and certainly has no authority to require agencies to perpetrate a massive fraud on the federal workforce by lying about federal workers’ ‘performance,’ to detriment of those workers, their families, and all those in the public and private sectors who rely upon those workers for important services,” the unions’ complaint states.
It's not about performance. The unions claim that OPM ordered the agencies to use a template email to fire the workers which falsely informed employees that their “terminations are for performance reasons rather than as part of a government-wide policy to reduce headcount that was authorized by no law.” Moreover, the agencies that followed the directive did not otherwise plan to terminate their entire probationary workforce, the unions contend. These employees were employed in authorized positions to perform services that in each agency’s judgment were needed to perform their statutorily mandated role. Some of the agencies were said to have confirmed to employees that they did not want to terminate their probationary employees but were directed to do so by OPM. Further, some agencies have “confirmed that the notices of termination mandated by OPM were false, because the agencies were not firing the workers for performance reasons,” the unions alleged.
The unions filed their lawsuit in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division; the case is No. 3:25-cv-01780.
Who’s being helped and who’s being hurt?The complaint was filed against a background of continuing terminations across the federal workforce in a manner not always easily linked to the economic concerns of voters. Notably, the Trump Administration has now shutdown the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. “President Trump is firing American workers who monitor bird flu outbreaks, safeguard nuclear facilities, and now those who promote American history in Dorchester – all to help pay for tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in response. “Trump’s shutdown of the JFK Library won’t lower egg prices or make housing more affordable, but it’s part of a retribution tour designed to distract from his agenda to enrich the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else.”
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), reacted to the Trump administration’s “mass firings of dedicated workers across the Department of Health and H,uman Services (HHS) and its many subagencies.” Those subagencies include:
Administration For Children and Families (ACF), which is responsible for administering a variety of programs to help children and families thrive, including the primary federal childcare grant program, Head Start, and Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), among many others.
Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which leads our country’s medical and public health preparedness for, response to, and recovery from disasters and public health emergencies, coordinating planning and response for when fires erupt, pathogens like COVID or bird flu emerge, and so much more.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), charged with protecting the American people from health threats.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which helps ensure over 100 million Americans have access to health insurance by overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), charged with protecting Americans' health by ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines, biologics, and medical devices, and regulating food, cosmetics, tobacco products, and more.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), charged with improving access to care for vulnerable and underserved populations. The agency runs critical programs to bolster the nation’s health workforce, improve maternal and child health, support high-quality care in Community Health Centers and Ryan White HIV/AIDS clinics, address rural health needs, and more.
National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s premier medical research agency. Each year, NIH supports biomedical research that produces life-changing and, in many cases, lifesaving treatments and cures.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), charged with improving services and support available to people across the country for substance use disorder and mental health. The agency plays a leading role in tackling the fentanyl and opioid crisis, and it oversees the 988 Lifeline.
NSH terminations. At the National Science Foundation (NSH), which is an independent federal agency that funds scientific research around the globe, the White House ordered the firing of 168 probationary employees, according to an agency spokesperson in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. Prior to the February 18 job cuts, the NSF had 1,450. About 12 percent were fired.
Oops, wrong move! Some terminations were later deemed “accidental.” At the Department of Agriculture, on February 18, the agency said that over the previous weekend, it had “accidentally fired ‘several’ agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak,” as reported by NBC News. The agency is reportedly trying to quickly reverse the firings.
NASA employees spared, at least for now. SPACE.com reported that the space community was facing “a brutal shake-up at NASA,” but a February 18 last-minute decision “spared over 1,000 agency employees on probationary status from being dismissed.” Notably, the aggressive federal workforce down-sizing by the Trump Administration’s and DOGE is spearheaded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
IRS in the crosshairs. It was anticipated that on February 20, the IRS would lay-off about 6,000 employees amid a hiring freeze set by the president, according to media outlets. The layoffs would primarily impact new hires. According to media sources, the IRS managers asked some employees to bring their government-issued equipment to the office in the coming days.
The expected purge did in fact begin on February 20, according to Axios. Given its implementation during tax season, questions have been raised as to whether it will impact tax returns and refunds.
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