More federal employees will be at least temporarily protected from layoffs ordered by the Trump administration after a federal judge expanded her order to prevent government shutdown-related terminations to include additional unions.
The order followed a disagreement between plaintiff unions and the federal government on whom the initial order – granted last week – applied to after it only explicitly named some of the plaintiff unions that represent federal workers.
Initial plaintiffs – including the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County And Municipal Employees – were named in the first order, but other unions who later joined the suit are also now protected under U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s second order.
Those additional unions include the National Federation of Federal Employees, Service Employees International Union, and the National Association of Government Employees.
It also notably includes any federal employees in any collective bargaining unit represented by a union named in the suit, with the order explicitly stating that federal employees in any program, project, or activity are covered by the order.
Illston’s order said that the Trump administration’s efforts to lay off federal employees during the government shutdown appeared to be an attempt “to punish the opposing political party,” and was likely an unlawful overreach of power.
The federal government shut down on Oct. 1 after Senate Democrats refused to pass a continuing resolution to temporarily keep the government open after Republicans said they would get rid of Obamacare subsidies.
Under the latest order by Illston, the federal agencies whose employees are represented by the unions covered by the temporary restraining order must provide the number of reductions in force (RIFs) completed and planned by Oct. 20.
Those RIFs – or layoffs – could be in the thousands, according to warnings from the White House, with court documents from earlier in the suit overseen by Illston showing that more than 4,000 employees have already been laid off.