A federal judge has once again called out the Trump administration for its disregard of a court order, this time over the handling of workers who were illegally fired and are entitled to reinstatement. Judge William Alsup, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blasted the administration for putting fired workers on paid administrative leave instead of restoring them to their jobs as ordered. The judge demanded that the administration explain what it was doing by 3 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.
In his order, Alsup made it clear that putting workers on leave did not fix the issue at hand. “This is not allowed by the preliminary injunction, for it would not restore the services the preliminary injunction intends to restore,” he wrote. This decision follows a controversial decision to terminate tens of thousands of federal workers, many of them probationary employees, as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to government services under its so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Probationary employees, who are typically in their first one or two years of federal service, do not have tenure protections. Despite this, many workers who were fired had good work records, with no history of discipline. These employees received termination notices claiming they were let go for performance issues, even though many were high performers.
Unions like the American Federation of Government Employees have filed lawsuits, arguing that the firings violated the law by bypassing Congress and failing to follow proper procedures for federal layoffs. As a result, workers have been temporarily reinstated to their positions while the legal battle plays out.
However, according to multiple reports, instead of reinstating these workers to their jobs, the Trump administration has opted to place them on paid administrative leave. A fired employee from the U.S. Agriculture Department spoke to HuffPost, revealing that they were told they would not return to work but would receive back pay dating to their firing. Nearly 25,000 workers are entitled to reinstatement under recent court orders that deemed their firings illegal.
Alsup had previously ruled that the firings were unlawful, stating that the Office of Personnel Management, which led the mass terminations, did not have the authority to discipline workers at other federal agencies. He issued a temporary restraining order, requiring that those workers be brought back to their jobs.
In response, the White House argued that reinstating workers would create “significant confusion” and lead to “turmoil for the terminated employees.” The administration’s filing highlighted the logistical burden of reinstating workers, including the need to onboard them again, complete necessary training, and process paperwork like new security badges and benefits enrollment.
But despite these objections, the court has made it clear: the workers must be returned to their jobs immediately. Judge Alsup’s decision further demonstrates that the Trump administration’s handling of the terminations has not only violated workers’ rights but also ignored the courts’ orders to restore proper government services. The question now is whether the administration will comply with the court’s latest ruling or continue to defy it.
