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A US judge has temporarily blocked the White House from ordering federal agencies to fire probationary staff in a blow to efforts by Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk to slash the government workforce.
William Alsup, a federal judge in San Francisco, on Thursday imposed a temporary restraining order on the Office of Personnel Management, which last month directed federal agencies to identify “probationary” workers and “promptly determine whether those employees should be retained”.
This month, several federal agencies began laying off such staff after further guidance from the OPM.
“The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees within another agency,” said Alsup, according to media reports.
“It can hire its own employees, yes. Can fire them. But it cannot order or direct some other agency to do so,” he added.
The lay-offs were “illegal, should be stopped and rescinded”, he added, according to reports.
Alsup also directed the OPM to relay his decision to the Pentagon, which had planned to fire probationary workers.
The OPM and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The order comes amid a flurry of initiatives backed by Trump and spearheaded by the Tesla chief to shrink the size of the government.
Musk is leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has infiltrated agencies and has sought access to sensitive data including taxpayer information, according to reports.
The US president this month ordered heads of federal agencies to undertake “large-scale reductions in force”.
This week, the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency, ordered six probationary federal workers who had been terminated to be temporarily reinstated.
The California ruling stems from a complaint filed this month by unions and non-profit organisations, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
The decision applies to workers covered by the groups that brought the lawsuit, according to media reports.
The plaintiffs argued that “OPM lacks the constitutional, statutory, or regulatory authority to order federal agencies to terminate employees in this fashion”, according to legal filings, adding that Congress authorises federal employment and related spending.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the ruling was “an important initial victory for patriotic Americans across this country who were illegally fired from their jobs by an agency that had no authority to do so”.
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