Fired staff of Forest Service to head back

Fired U.S. Forest Service workers and other probationary employees of the Department of Agriculture who lost their jobs in a mass firing last month will return, at least temporarily, to the federal government.

The department released a statement Tuesday saying nearly 6,000 recently terminated employees will be reinstated to “pay status” starting today and receive back pay dating to when they were notified they would lose their jobs.

The move doesn’t mean those people will immediately return to their offices or field duties. Nor does it mean they won’t be laid off in the future. The statement said the department “will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty, and while those plans materialize, all probationary employees will be paid.”

Spokespersons for the Forest Service and Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for additional details.

The reinstatement is linked to a decision by the U.S. Merit Systems Board last week which declared the firings illegal and initiated a 45-stay. The board ruled evidence indicates the department fired the workers at the direction of the Office of Personnel Management not because of poor performance but instead as a planned effort to reduce the workforce that was directed by an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Trump and his political donor Elon Musk, leader of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency service, have said they want to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. They moved quickly to shut down the U.S. Agency of International Development, rescinded thousands grants and fired thousands of federal workers as part of that effort.

The government can cut jobs as part of efforts to shrink the government but the Merit Systems Board said federal code dictates it must follow a “reduction in force” process to do so. Instead, the department followed a process to dismiss employees who are not meeting expectations. The fired employees were told in termination letters they were losing their jobs based on their performance. But the form letters did not include any details about their alleged shortcomings and many reported they recently received positive performance reviews.

The decision pertains to employees who were fired beginning Feb. 13 and received letters saying in part, “The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest.”

The Forest Service fired about 2,000 employees. It has not said how many employees were let go from individual forests like the Nez Perce-Clearwater.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com.