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President Donald Trump has moved to dramatically shrink the size of the federal workforce and mass terminations have already begun at several U.S. government agencies. But a tangled web of laws and regulations around hiring and firing government employees could mire Trump’s efforts in lawsuits and delays.
Here is a look at Trump’s actions so far and the legal obstacles he could face in downsizing the 2.3 million-strong civilian federal workforce.
What Has Trump Done So Far?
Trump on February 11 signed an executive order directing federal agencies to make large-scale personnel reductions and look for ways to eliminate or combine positions.
The order also said that agencies can hire only one new worker for every four who leave, with exceptions for positions involving immigration and law enforcement. Mass firings have started at several agencies, with mostly recently hired employees losing their jobs.
How Much Power Does Trump Have To Fire Or Lay Off Workers?
As president, Trump has broad authority to shrink the federal workforce, but slashing headcount may not be straightforward.
Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily. Probationary employees — typically those with less than a year of service — have fewer legal protections.
Federal agencies can trim headcount through so-called reductions in force, but that can be a complicated process governed by rules and regulations dictating the scope and order of firings. The process can take months to a year or longer, and employees must be given notice and in some cases the opportunity to take a different government job.
Going that route also requires a valid legal justification, such as agency restructuring, lack of work or budget constraints.
What Can Workers Do If Trump Tries To Fire Them?
Federal employees can appeal firings to the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that enforces laws protecting civil service workers from political retaliation and other prohibited employment practices.
The board employs administrative judges to hear disputes, but the agency’s three-member board issues final decisions. Trump fired Cathy Harris, who chaired the board, but she has filed a lawsuit seeking to undo the move, saying she can be removed only for performance reasons.
If workers exhaust their appeals with the board, they can file their claims directly with the Federal Circuit, a Washington-based appeals court. But it remains to be seen how many workers — especially probationary employees — will actually pursue legal action over their terminations.
Do Unionized Workers Have Extra Protections?
Nearly 30% of all federal workers are represented by labor unions, which can negotiate additional job protections as part of their collective bargaining agreements with the government. Such contracts spell out what employers can and cannot do.
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For example, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency workers cannot be fired for their positions on science, and other unions have deals with the government protecting remote work — something Trump’s administration has said it is ending.
Breaching collective bargaining agreements with unions could mire the administration in lawsuits or spur unions to launch cases in arbitration, which could take many months to resolve.
Didn’t Trump Offer Federal Workers Buyouts?
Shortly after Trump took office, his administration offered federal employees the opportunity to resign and continue receiving pay and benefits through September 30. This could be the easiest way for Trump to shrink the federal workforce because the departures would be voluntary.
About 75,000 workers have taken buyouts, according to the White House. The window for workers to resign closed on February 12 after a federal judge declined to block the program from proceeding.
Labor unions have filed other lawsuits seeking to block the buyouts, but it is unclear how those cases will play out now that the offer has expired. The judge who declined to block the buyouts said the unions that sued lacked legal standing because they had not been directly harmed by the program.
Could Some Federal Workers Lose Civil Service Protections?
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that would place a broad swath of career civil servants into a new category of employees who potentially could be fired more easily and without due process protections.
The new category, known as Schedule Policy/Career or Schedule P/C, would strip many employees involved in policymaking of civil service protections, allowing the president to fire them at will.
Federal employee unions have filed lawsuits seeking to block the reclassification, saying it violates laws and regulations aimed at protecting civil servants from being hired or fired for political reasons.
The administration has not yet responded to the lawsuits, but Trump said in his executive order that reclassification was necessary to ease firing for misconduct and to prevent federal workers from resisting or undermining his policies.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Will Dunham)
