Board Grants Request by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to Stay Unlawful Firings of Probationary Workers Who Filed Class Complaint

From www.democracyforward.org -

Washington, DC – The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has granted a request from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to halt the termination of six probationary employees who filed a class complaint alleging that their terminations were unlawful. Now that the stay on the terminations will go into effect, Democracy Forward and its co-counsel Alden Law Group will work to expand the stay to cover all probationary federal employees who were unlawfully terminated. 

The request to halt the terminations and reinstate federal workers was made in a complaint filed by Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group on behalf of six civil servants across multiple federal agencies who were terminated by the Trump administration “with no regard for the performance or conduct” but instead because of their probationary status due to their short tenure with the federal government. 

“The Merit Systems Protection Board’s decision to grant this stay is the correct result of a clearly unlawful and massively disruptive action by the Trump administration,” said Democracy Forward President & CEO Skye Perryman. “We will continue to urge the Office of the Special Counsel and the MSPB to follow the law, protect all federal workers, investigate misconduct, and uphold the independence and integrity of our civil service. We will use all legal tools to defend America’s civil service from an Administration seeking to harm them.”

“This decision reflects the importance of the MSPB and OSC in safeguarding the fundamental merit system principles and most importantly, allows these wrongfully terminated employees to return to their jobs, provide for their families, and continue serving the public with dignity and integrity,” said Alden Law Group PLLC Partner Michelle Bercovici.

The initial complaint urged the OSC to investigate, and upon finding a reason to believe the mass firings are illegal, request the MSPB halt the probationary employees’ terminations pending further investigation. On February 24, the OSC requested the MSPB stay the six terminations. In issuing the stay order, the MSPB cited an example of such a termination, where a “100% disabled veteran, was terminated from his position on the same day that his supervisor had commended him for his ‘willingness to go above and beyond.’” 

While MSPB’s stay covers the six representative employees specifically named in the February 14 complaint, the complaint requests that OSC seek relief on behalf of all similarly situated probationary employees. The complaint was supplemented on February 22, adding an additional 14 agencies. 

A copy of the initial complaint filed on February 14 is available here, Special Counsel Dellinger’s statement is available here, a redacted example of a stay request contained in Special Counsel Dellinger’s statement is available here, and the February 22 supplemented complaint is available here. 

Resources for Civil Servants are available at www.civilservicestrong.org.