The U.S. Department of Labor has reinstated about 120 employees who were facing termination as part of the Trump administration’s mass firings of recently hired workers, a union said on Friday.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, said the probationary employees had been reinstated immediately and the department was issuing letters telling them to report back to duty on Monday.
“It’s our understanding that this decision affects about 120 employees, most of whom had been placed on administrative leave,” Tim Kauffman, a union spokesperson, said in a statement.
A letter to one employee reviewed by Reuters advised the department would “use the remainder of your probationary/trial period to determine if your appointment is in the best interest of the public.”
The Labor Department and White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The Labor Department employees were reinstated a day after U.S. President Donald Trump told his cabinet members that they, not Elon Musk, had the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies.
Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency have been tasked by Trump to slash the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy.
To date about 25,000 workers have been fired, and another 75,000 have taken a buyout, out of the 2.3 million federal civilian workforce.
Trump on Thursday, though, said while it was “very important that we cut levels down to where they should be,” agencies should use a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet” for job reductions.
A day earlier, the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 probationary employees, while the board considers a challenge to their firing.
The board hears appeals by federal government employees when they are fired or disciplined.
Probationary workers typically have less than a year of service in their current roles, though some are longtime federal workers.
Skye Perryman, whose liberal legal group Democracy Forward is challenging the firings, on Friday welcomed the Labor Department’s decision to reverse course on terminating probationary employees.
“Every other agency should follow their lead and put these workers back on the job immediately,” she said in a statement.
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