Agencies told to clarify firings were part of 'government-wide mass termination'
Several federal agencies have been ordered to inform thousands of terminated probationary employees that their dismissals were not performance-based, as originally stated in their termination letters, but were part of a broader government-wide directive.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued the order after ruling that the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) template for citing performance as the basis of the terminations is a "total sham."
"The template was a sham, citing 'performance' as the basis for the terminations in order to evade statutory and regulatory requirements, including, for example, the construction of an 'order of retention' that honours veterans' preference eligibility," Alsup said in his recent decision, as published by Reuters.
The court's decision requires that all agencies which followed OPM's directive and used the termination template must issue new, individualised statements to each terminated employee by May 8.
These statements must clarify that the dismissal was part of a "government-wide mass termination," not based on individual performance evaluations.
In cases where agencies have already provided performance-based reasons for terminations, they must submit sworn declarations explaining the individualised performance assessments that led to those decisions.
This decision marks a significant victory for unions and employees, who argued that OPM's directive was unlawful and had caused irreparable harm to affected employees.
Many of the terminated employees earlier this year had been given glowing performance reviews prior to their dismissal, including individuals like Dr. Andrew Frassetto at the National Science Foundation, whose termination was attributed to performance despite an outstanding evaluation just days before.
The court found that this directive undermined the legal protections afforded to federal employees, including veterans, and further caused substantial disruption to the operations of federal agencies.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed the ruling.
Kelley praised the decision to "dismantling the false narrative that these employees were terminated for poor performance when no such thing occurred," Reuters reported.
