Employees who were fired last month from the agency that oversees federal fisheries in Alaska were reinstated on Monday morning. That came in response to a federal judge’s ruling that the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of thousands of workers were unlawful.
Most of the probationary employees fired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been reinstated. But most have been put on “non-duty” status, which prevents them from actually returning to work.
“They have basically placed us in a paid status, but we’re not returning to work necessarily,” said Rebecca Howard, one of 13 employees at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center who were fired last month. She received an email Monday morning saying that she had been reinstated.
In Alaska, the agencies that were hit by the layoffs also include the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.
But two separate rulings came down Thursday that called the across-the-board firings unlawful. In one of them, U.S. District Judge James Bredar of Maryland ordered the reinstatement of probationary employees at 18 federal departments, including the Department of Commerce, which oversees NOAA. The decision places a temporary stay on the terminations.
The department complied, but some within NOAA say communication has been lacking.
“My supervisor wasn’t informed. I had to inform her, as was the case for everybody up the chain at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center,” Howard said. “I don’t think that anyone was told when these would be coming out.”
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which directs human resources within the federal government, lays out protocols for layoffs that are due to things like budget cuts or agency restructuring. Employees terminated under these circumstances receive protections, including priority for reemployment, severance pay or retirement benefits.
But last month’s mass terminations cited poor performance, essentially stripping those employees’ protections. And the reinstatement notices tell employees that the Department of Commerce “may revert your prior termination” if the department prevails in the Marland litigation.
“It’s kind of harsh because it basically tells us that they may retroactively fire us later if they win in this court case,” Howard said.
The temporary order expires March 31, and a hearing is scheduled March 26.
The post Federal fisheries employees in Alaska have been reinstated, but most are not allowed to work appeared first on World Online.
