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The Trump administration discreetly clarified a directive which stimulated the dismissal of tens of thousands of civil servants, after layoffs sowed chaos across the country.
The move came in the form of a short update to a service note at first hour after President Donald TrumpInauguration in January, asking government services to compile a list of staff members who have been employed for less than a year and justify their retention. In May of last year, this included at least 200,000 federal workers.
The memo of the staff management office, or OPM, which has become a main vehicle for billionaire Trump Ally Elon MuskCost reduction conduct was interpreted by numerous agencies as a directive to abandon probationary employees, which led to at least 20,000 layoffs.
People dismissed in recent weeks include civilian defense staff, employees working on veterans and workers responsible for the safeguarding of American nuclear stocks.
An addition to the note appeared on Tuesday, saying: “Please note that, by this memorandum, the OPM does not direct agencies to take specific actions based on performance concerning probationary employees”. The OPM added that individual agencies were “responsible for these staff actions”.
The office refused to comment on the change. A person familiar with OPM’s decision said that it had always been up to agencies to determine whether to dismiss employees, and that the assembly was intended for clarification “in the light of a recent legal order and poor public information”.
The new message intervened after a federal judge prohibited the OPM from dismissing specific government services, specifying that the office “has no authority under a law of the history of the universe to hire and dismiss employees in another agency”.
Justice William Alsup said there was a “mountain of evidence” that the MEMO of the OPM had been considered a directive, no simple advice.
Alsup has also reiterated that “the current and mass cessation of the agencies of the federal government has sowed significant chaos”.
He quoted the dismissal of more than 1,000 employees to the Ministry of Veterans who “paralyzed the administration of the agency of the veterans’ crisis line”, which offers, among other things, emergency assistance to those who envisage suicide or self -control.
Although Alsop did not order agencies to restore those who had already been dismissed, certain departments have already started to do so. Some probation employees from the National Science Foundation last month began to be rehired on Monday, the agency said in a statement.
The US government was also forced last month to re -hire employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The modification of the note was made a few hours before Trump delivered his speech on the state of the Union at the Congress. Many Democrats have said they would bring federal workers who have been dismissed at the event.
