Federal board orders temporary reinstatement of thousands of USDA probationers

A federal appeals body within the executive branch issued an order Wednesday to temporarily reinstate thousands of fired probationary workers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in what advocates hailed as an important win for fired employees.

The decision from the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial body within the government, grants a Friday request from the Office of Special Council, an independent government investigator, to stay the termination of an unnamed former employee and over 5,000 others who were similarly situated. 

The 45-day pause gives the OSC time to investigate the legality of the firings and, importantly, signals a potential path for classes of federal workers at other agencies to similarly be reinstated. In response to the decision, Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger thanked the MSPB and asked agencies governmentwide to voluntarily roll back probationary firings.

“Agencies are best positioned to determine the employees impacted by these mass terminations,” Dellinger said. “That’s why I am calling on all federal agencies to voluntarily and immediately rescind any unlawful terminations of probationary employees.”

The ruling, however, came just before a federal appeals court allowed President Donald Trump to remove Dellinger from his post while litigation over his attempted firing moves forward. Trump initially tried to fire Dellinger but a federal district court blocked that action. It’s not immediately clear how the appellate ruling might impact potential requests to MSPB.

USDA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the order. 

The decision follows a previous order from the board that provided relief to six workers from separate agencies who were similarly fired amid the federal government’s mass purge of workers in probationary status. Following that order, OSC said the special council was “considering ways to seek relief for a broader group without the need for individual filings with” the office. 

That previous decision was the result of a class-wide complaint that Democracy Forward and Alden Law Group, PLLC filed with OSC, which it had called “the first known of its kind.” The advocates later amended the complaint to ask OSC to broaden its stay request. 

In a statement Wednesday, Democracy Forward CEO and President Skye Perryman celebrated the USDA order and reiterated the organization’s intent to extend that relief to all fired probationary workers.

“We are gratified that this unlawful action has been stayed for USDA employees, and we remain committed to ensuring the tens of thousands of other civil servants receive this same reprieve,” Perryman said.

Employees impacted

Specifically, the Wednesday MSPB decision applies to the unnamed USDA employee “and all other probationary employees whom the agency has terminated since February 13, 2025, pursuant to letters stating: ‘The [a]gency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the [a]gency would be in the public interest.’”

That language has appeared in termination letters of federal employees throughout the government. 

The USDA employees will be reinstated for a period beginning March 5 and ending April 18, according to the order. During that period, USDA is barred from making changes to those employees’ responsibilities or imposing requirements that aren’t consistent with their salary or grade level, a government scale that signifies the level of difficulty and qualifications required for a role.

While estimates of the impacted workers are certainly in the thousands, the number of employees potentially impacted by the decision isn’t fully clear, according to the case documents. 

Per the order, the board asked OSC on Monday for additional information about fired employees other than the unnamed worker. In response, the special counsel submitted a list of 5,692 former probationary workers that USDA provided that same day, noting that it wasn’t definitive. 

According to the order, OSC said “the agency cautioned that this number was still in flux due to corrections, rehirings, and changes to mission-critical designations.” In its initial request, OSC said that the agency had provided documentation that, as of Feb. 18, it fired 5,950 probationers. 

The board ultimately found reasonable grounds to believe USDA terminated those thousands of workers in violation of what’s known as prohibited personnel practices, citing the “possibility that additional individuals, not specifically named in the agency’s response, may be affected by these probationary terminations.”

Past practice, next steps

While the request for such broad relief from the OSC isn’t typical, Mary E. Kuntz, an employment lawyer in Washington who represents federal workers before OSC and the board, told FedScoop it’s “perfectly consistent with their procedures.”

“They clearly presented, from this decision, evidence that this was widespread and throughout this agency, and so it’s not unreasonable for them to seek a stay,” said Kuntz, who works at the firm Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch PC.

Kuntz also applauded the OSC’s move to request a stay quickly, noting it usually takes some time for the office to make a formal request to the board. As a result, OSC will generally ask an agency directly for an informal pause to the action while it’s investigating and agencies often comply, she said.

As far as what next steps could look like, Kuntz said stays from MSPB are typically renewed several times. The subsequent renewals are when the board will get to hear a “more balanced set of arguments,” she said, adding that OSC has usually received two or three extensions on behalf of her own clients in the past.

For OSC’s part, Kuntz said, it can either negotiate with USDA to stop the prohibited personnel practices and pay for any harm or go to the MSPB in a lawsuit against the agency on behalf of the employees. Kuntz said she’s only ever seen a case go to settlement.

The decision from MSPB also comes on the heels of another win for fired probationary workers in federal district court in San Francisco. U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted temporary, limited relief to pause and rescind those firings at several agencies, finding that OPM likely unlawfully directed the firing of those agency workers.

That order has similarly prompted reinstatements. Since the court decision, the National Science Foundation moved to reinstate its fired federal probationary workers, citing the federal courts and updated guidance from the Office of Personnel Management. 

OPM also responded Tuesday by updating its existing memo to agencies on probationary workers with language that states it’s not directing agencies to take personnel actions with respect to probationary employees.

This story was updated March 5 with news of the appellate decision on Dellinger’s firing, a comment from Perryman, additional detail about the requests to OSC and MSPB orders, comments from Kuntz, and information about the other litigation involving probationary workers.