The Interior Department plans to lay off over 2,000 workers during the government shutdown, including several IT and technology roles, according to new court documents filed on Monday.
After U.S. District Judge Susan Illston expanded an order last week that blocked the Trump administration from conducting reductions in force (RIFs) for government employees covered by certain federal employee unions, several departments updated their planned RIFs.
Specifically, the Interior Department said it plans to terminate 2,050 employees, with many of those working in the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Previously, the department had reported its intent to RIF 1,539 positions.
Of that number, 28 employees held roles related to data, IT, mission systems, and IT strategic planning and new technology evaluation.
The department’s chief human capital officer, Rachel Borra, said that the plans to terminate those positions “predated” the government shutdown and are unrelated to directions from the White House that okayed the layoffs.
The Department of Commerce updated its number of planned layoffs to 440 employees – up from previous documents that stated 315 – though it specified that 159 of those were “general RIF notices” that notified employees that their role could be terminated.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acknowledged that the extended court order applied to its 954 employees who received RIF notices after Thomas Nagy, HHS’s chief human capital officer, had previously said in a court filing that Judge Illston’s order didn’t apply to the affected employees because they were not represented by the unions that filed to block the layoffs.
This followed Judge Illston’s expansion of the order, which included unions that later joined the suit – including the National Federation of Federal Employees, Service Employees International Union, and the National Association of Government Employees – and any collective bargaining units represented by the unions.
The Energy Department said that it does not have to provide RIF numbers, as its RIF notices “did not include an effective date for the RIF action.”
Other departments with employees represented by the unions named in the suit include the departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency.