Posts tagged Office of Special Counsel
Trump’s mass probationary firings were illegal, judge concludes, but he won’t order re-hirings
September 17, 2025 // Normally, Alsup said, his findings would require the Trump administration to return all probationers to their jobs. He noted the Supreme Court has specifically rejected such relief, however, and “too much water has now passed under the bridge.” Some employees have found new jobs, while some agencies have engaged in reorganizations that have eliminated the roles altogether. “The terminated probationary employees have moved on with their lives and found new jobs,” Alsup said. “Many would no longer be willing or able to return to their posts.” Instead, the judge once again ordered agencies to, by Nov. 14, send letters to all fired probationary employees that state “you were not terminated on the basis of your personal performance.”
OPM calls for quicker firings, more stringent performance standards
June 25, 2025 // Don Kettl, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. “In the case of any downsizing in government, training is always the first to go. So is there going to be investment to try to make happen what they’re proposing?” The former HR official said the plan to reduce performance improvement plans to 30 days belies the overall memo as a “red herring.” “If you can’t articulate why someone’s failing and you only give them 30 days to show that they’re no longer failing, it becomes a procedural widget to sustain a termination,” they said. “[And] the Trump administration has done such a thorough job in the last five months cutting the balls off of unions—which is a mistake, because they help provide due process—and the Merit Systems Protection Board, the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and [Office of Special Counsel], it’s going to be hard for current employees under these constraints to win anything.”
For federal employees, remote work ought to be exception, not rule
February 9, 2025 // But the public sector is a different ballgame. Whereas most private sector employees can be fired at any time and for any reason, the process for firing federal workers is intentionally onerous. Federal employees' right to "due process" means that employers must give them a 30-day advance notice and explanation of alleged misconduct before a termination can go into effect. Federal employees then have the right to appeal the firing to an independent agency, retain independent counsel, file a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, and then be reinstated with back pay and benefits should the appeal succeed.