NATIONWIDE – NEW YORK ATTORNEY General Letitia James and a coalition of 19 other attorneys general on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its firing of thousands of probationary federal workers, which James in a press statement called illegal. The coalition is seeking a court order to stop further mass layoffs without notice, and the reinstatement of all federal workers laid off since Jan. 20.
According to James, federal agencies are required by law to provide 60 days of written notice before mass layoffs of federal employees, to help states prepare job training programs, increased unemployment claims processing and other resources. The lawsuit argues that federal agencies were instead directed to conduct immediate mass terminations of probationary employees, contrary to the law, resulting in disruptions to state operations, essential services and workers’ lives.
A California judge earlier this week temporarily blocked further layoffs at some agencies, according to the Guardian. The federal Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday issued a memo that appeared to signal a partial retreat on the administration’s aggressive government reductions, saying that individual agencies are responsible for layoffs.
These layoffs have impacted hundreds of New York workers, with cuts affecting Veterans Affairs medical centers statewide, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff assigned to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Internal Revenue Service employees in Buffalo and Syracuse and the National Labor Relations Board regional office in Buffalo. The fired employees are probationary workers who were either newly hired or recently promoted or relocated; during the probationary period, protections against firings are weakened for federal workers.
Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this week launched a campaign to help recruit fired federal workers to New York state government agencies.
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