Federal board halts firings of six probationary employees amid Trump cuts

An independent federal board on Tuesday granted a request from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, or OSC, to halt the termination of six probationary government employees amid the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce.

The move by the Merit Systems Protectiondog agency argued that the firings were probably illegal and recommended that they be halted pending an investigation, The Washington Post reported.

The MSPB, which hears appeals of disciplinary actions against federal employees, said Tuesday that the request for a 45-day stay of the terminations was appropriate “while OSC further investigates their complaints.”

Board (MSPB) was in response to a recent request issued by OSC head Hampton Dellinger, in which the watchLegal organization Democracy Forward, which filed a complaint on behalf of the six workers Feb. 14 alongside the Alden Law Group, said Tuesday in a statement that the two groups will now work “to expand the stay to cover all probationary federal employees who were unlawfully terminated.”

Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman called MSPB’s decision “the correct result of a clearly unlawful and massively disruptive action by the Trump administration.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

The MSPB’s move could have wider implications for the thousands of probationary employees fired in recent weeks as the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service sweeps through federal agencies. Probationary employees, who are newer hires and typically have less job protection, were targeted in cuts earlier this month, and government agencies are in the process of firing thousands more workers.

Dellinger is “considering ways to seek relief for a broader group,” OSC said in a statement Monday, while worker advocates hope an investigation could end with a remedy for all fired federal workers.

OSC, which investigates whistleblower reports filed by government workers, is tasked with investigating and prosecuting complaints about prohibited personnel practices in the federal workforce, such as retaliation or rule-breaking, that violate the merit system.

President Donald Trump has tried to oust Dellinger and MSPB chair Cathy Harris as he looks to remake and seize greater control of the federal bureaucracy. Both have sued the Trump administration over their firings, saying their terminations violate federal law, and have been temporarily reinstated by district judges in D.C.

In the Feb. 14 complaint, the six workers allege they were fired during “plainly unlawful” mass terminations that were “indisputably conducted with no regard for the performance or conduct of individual probationary employees.”

The six employees were terminated around the same time as at least 5,000 or more other probationary workers in their agencies, according to estimates cited in Dellinger’s request. They worked for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Agriculture, as well as the Office of Personnel Management.

Dellinger found that the employees had not been given notice of any specific issues with their job performance or conduct before being fired. He concluded that the agencies may have violated federal regulations governing how to reduce a workforce or how to terminate probationary employees.

“Firing probationary employees without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law, particularly the provisions establishing rules for reductions in force,” Dellinger said in the Monday statement.

Alden Law Group partner Michelle Bercovici said in a statement that Tuesday’s 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.”