Six fired federal workers will be temporarily reinstated after a decision this week by the Merit Systems Protection Board, the first step toward what lawyers representing fired employees hope will be the restoration of thousands of jobs cut by the Trump administration.
The board, an independent agency that considers appeals from federal workers about employment actions, announced its decision late Tuesday. It will remain in effect through April 10 so that the Office of Special Counsel can continue investigating the fired employees’ complaints. The six employees come from six different federal agencies.
“I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of the six agencies engaged in a prohibited personnel practice,” Raymond A. Limon, a member of the board, wrote in his order.
The decision ultimately could apply more broadly to thousands of other government employees who have been fired because they were on probationary status and relatively new in their positions.
Both the lawyer investigating the personnel actions, the special counsel Hampton Dellinger, and the chairwoman of the three-person board considering the claims, Cathy Harris, were also fired by Mr. Trump earlier this month. They are both fighting their own removals through the legal system, and federal judges have reinstated them temporarily.
Mr. Dellinger leads the Office of Special Counsel, the watchdog agency meant to protect whistle-blowers. He was fired on Feb. 7, but a federal judge ordered that the firing be put on hold until March 1.