Washington joins lawsuit to stop probationary federal employee cuts

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has joined a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate probationary federal employees. It anticipates more Washingtonians will lose their positions if the plan moves forward.

In a filing Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office said the state government believes at least a thousand federal employees in Washington have been terminated as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to downsize federal offices. According to the state Employment Security Department, the state is home to roughly 76,000 federal employees.

“Many of the president’s power grabs have this problem in common – they’re illegal,” Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement Wednesday. “These firings don’t save the public a dime, but they do make government less responsive, particularly in the communities across the nation where these employees live and serve.”

The lawsuit was initially brought by a collection of union groups who represent federal employees against the Office of Personnel Management. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Friday and directed the Office of Personnel Management to rescind its guidance to federal agencies to identify probationary employees, typically those who are in the first year of their position.

Following the ruling, Everett Kelley, 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.

“These are rank-and-file workers who joined the federal government to make a difference in their communities, only to be suddenly terminated due to this administration’s disdain for federal employees and desire to privatize their work,” Kelley said in a statement Monday. “OPM’s direction to agencies to engage in the indiscriminate firing of federal probationary employees is illegal, plain and simple, and our union will keep fighting until we put a stop to these demoralizing and damaging attacks on our civil service once and for all.”

On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management amended a Jan. 20 memo and added a paragraph that said the agency “is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees.”

“Agencies have ultimate decision-making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions,” the updated memo states.

In February, the Washington State Governor’s office said that the state’s Employment Security Department had seen an uptick in federal employees filing for unemployment in the new year. As of Feb. 21, an average of 14 federal employees filed for state unemployment benefits per day. Between Feb. 13 and 18, 156 federal employees filed for unemployment in Washington, with 63 employees filing on Feb. 18.

“My administration is standing at the ready to support all Washington workers – including federal government employees impacted by chaos in the federal government,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a Feb. 21 statement. “We will help you get back on your feet.”

Spokane County is home to roughly 5,000 federal employees, according to data from the Employment Security Department. The largest concentration of federal employees in the state is in King, Pierce and Kitsap counties, which are home to large military installations, among other facilities.

In a filing Wednesday, the Washington Attorney’s General Office argued that staff reductions in federal agencies would have far-reaching impacts, past the immediate impact on those who have lost their jobs.

“Reduced staffing at any of the federal agencies on which the State relies and interacts with every day will directly impact the State, far beyond the immediate harm to federal employees based in Washington who have lost their livelihood and benefits,” the filing states.

The filing highlights many cooperative efforts between the federal government and the state that could be impacted by the staffing cuts.

“The State relies on partnerships with the federal government to fight wildfires, contain outbreaks of communicable diseases, keep its waters clean, and respond to natural disasters,” the filing states. “Without sufficient federal staffing, the State’s workload and costs will increase, forest fires within the State will be harder to fight, diseases will be harder to control, and emergency response times will drop.”