US judge orders government to rehire thousands of laid-off workers

A federal judge has ruled that the US government should reinstate the contracts of thousands of employees recently laid off as part of a drive to streamline the bureaucracy.

According to CNN, Judge William Alsup in the state of California (USA) on March 13 issued a ruling ordering 6 departments, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Interior, the Department of Defense and the Department of Finance, to immediately rehire the interns they had recently fired. Mr. Alsup said he could extend the order to other agencies later.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters, one of the agencies ordered to rehire recently laid-off employees

Mr. Alsup argues that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) illegally directed federal agencies to fire probationary employees, who often had been on the job for less than a year.

The Justice Department and OPM previously said they were only providing "guidance" to agencies, but Judge Alsup rejected that view, saying it was an order.

The White House called the ruling "absurd and unconstitutional." "A judge is unconstitutionally attempting to usurp hiring and firing powers from the executive branch. The president has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch; individual district judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judicial system to thwart the president's agenda," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

The Ministry of Justice signaled on the same day that it would appeal to the court of appeal.

This is just one of several lawsuits related to the Trump administration’s job cuts. A similar lawsuit is pending in Maryland.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tham-phan-my-yeu-cau-chinh-quyen-tuyen-lai-hang-ngan-nhan-vien-bi-sa-thai-185250314072108268.htm