Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—AFGE continues to seek TRO, updates filing after OMB Director’s social media post stating ‘The RIFs have begun’, (Oct 14, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Indeed, in a response filed Friday, the Trump administration acknowledged RIF notices targeted at over 4,100 federal employees working for a variety of agencies.

Ten days ago, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) filed a motion with a federal court in California for a temporary restraining order (TRO), seeking to block the Trump administration's threatened imminent mass firings of federal workers. The motion followed on the heels of the lawsuit filed by the unions as the shutdown loomed.

In that lawsuit, the unions alleged that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law by directing that federal agencies conduct mass firings of federal workers during the shutdown. It also alleged that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its Director Scott Kupor issued unlawful and unprecedented instructions that federal employees may perform work during the federal government shutdown in order to carry out the reductions. The unions contend that the administration’s plan to fire federal employees during a shutdown is unprecedented and is an unlawful abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

Reductions happening. More recently, on Friday October 10, 2025, the unions filed a supplemental motion for an immediate TRO, alleging: “At 9:27 am today, October 10, 2025, OMB Director Russell Vought posted on social media: ‘The RIFs have begun.’ This corroborates credible information Plaintiffs began receiving earlier this morning from multiple sources that OMB has directed federal agencies government-wide to begin issuing RIF notices today.”

In the supplemental motion, they reiterate their argument that “these RIFS violate the Antideficiency Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, including by requiring agency employees to unlawfully work during the shutdown, unlawfully laying off employees during the shutdown, and improperly using the shutdown as the basis for the layoffs.”

Government provides numbers. Also on Friday, the government filed its response to the October 4, 2025, motion, which was due on that date, contesting the arguments made by the unions, but also acknowledging that the defendant agencies had begun issuing RIF notices on the 10th and that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had separately issued RIF notices on October 1, 2025, to 126 employees.

All told, the numbers provided by the Trump administration are northward of 4,100 employees. The agencies and number of employees targeted include: at the Department of Commerce, approximately 315 employees; at the Department of Education, approximately 466 employees; at the Department of Energy, approximately 187 employees; at the Department of Health and Human Services, between approximately 1100 and 1200 employees; at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, approximately 442 employees; at the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 176 employees; and at the Department of Treasury, approximately 1446 employees.

The response also states: “Excepted employees at each of these listed Defendant agencies are working on RIF notices and implementation, with the exception of employees at the Department of Energy, which is not currently experiencing a lapse in appropriations and accordingly has not excepted employees to work on issuance of RIF notices.” It adds that the Environmental Protection Agency has also issued a general “intent to RIF” notice to between 20 and 30 employees, “notifying them that they may be affected by a RIF in the future” and that other defendant agencies are “actively considering whether to conduct additional RIFs related to the ongoing lapse in appropriations.” It adds: “Other Defendant agencies have made predecisional assessments regarding offices and subdivisions that may be considered for potential RIFs based on the criteria outlined in the OPM Lapse Email.”

In a document providing “supplemental evidence in support of” its motion for an immediate TRO, the unions questions the accuracy of some of the Trump administration’s representations regarding when and how the RIFs are proceeding.

Firing during furlough is a first. In a statement issued by AFGE on Friday, the AFGE National President Everett Kelley noted: “In AFGE’s 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations—including during Trump’s first term—no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown.”

Batten down the hatches. "OMB is making every preparation to batten down the hatches and ride out the Democrats’ intransigence," a member of the Trump administration said this morning in a statement shared on social media. "Pay the troops, pay law enforcement, continue the RIFs, and wait."

A hearing regarding the TRO motion will be held tomorrow, October 15, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. at the United States District Court in San Francisco.

The lawsuit is proceeding in the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division; the case is No. 3:25-cv-08302-SI.

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