Lists of newly hired federal employees are requested by the Trump administration from agencies

The Daily Beast

Under federal statue, federal employees with a competitive service appointment are considered to be in a probationary period during their first year of service.
Most newly hired federal employees have limited ability to appeal a termination to MSPB during that time.
The memo could pave the way for agencies to potentially remove some newly hired workers while skirting the civil service protections most career federal employees have once they pass the one-year mark in the federal workforce.
Since the Trump administration also ordered a federal hiring freeze, most agencies would not be able to replace any potentially terminated employees.
That number may indicate generally how many newly hired employees are in the federal workforce at any given time.

NEGATIVE

This week, the Trump administration is reminding agency leaders that newly hired employees are the easiest to fire and is giving federal agencies until the end of the week to provide lists of all their workers who are still on their one-year probationary periods.

Agency heads were reminded by OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell in a memo sent Wednesday night about “critical potential personnel actions” that newly hired federal employees can be fired “without triggering [Merit System Protection Board] appeal rights.”. Agencies have until Friday to provide OPM with a report that includes a list of all employees who are presently on probation.

Ezell wrote in the memo, “Agencies should proactively decide whether those employees should remain at the agency.”.

Federal employees with competitive service appointments are deemed to be in a probationary period for the first year of their employment, according to federal statute. A probationary period of up to two years may be imposed on employees with an appointment for excepted service.

The purpose of the probationary period is to allow agencies some leeway in determining whether a new hire is a good fit for a federal position. OPM’s website states that agencies have the authority to “swiftly terminate” federal employees during their probationary period if they find that the employee has not proven themselves suitable for a federal position. During that period, the majority of recently hired federal employees have limited time to appeal a termination to MSPB.

The memo may allow agencies to fire some recently hired employees without the civil service protections that most career federal employees enjoy after one year of employment.

According to Kevin Owen, a partner at Gilbert Employment Law, a federal employment law firm, OPM’s memo seems to be a series of reminders to agencies regarding the legal flexibility allowed for changes to the federal workforce.

Owen stated in an interview, “But what interests me is that they’re bringing it up at all, and whether or not this is a signal that there are going to be significant layoffs or terminations of probationary employees as the first step in reducing the size of the federal workforce.”.

A federal hiring freeze was also imposed by the Trump administration, which would prevent most agencies from replacing any workers who might be let go.

It’s unclear how many employees OPM’s new memo may affect specifically. According to the most recent Fedscope data available as of March 2024, over 220,000 federal employees were still on probation for a year. That figure might provide a general idea of the number of recently hired workers in the federal workforce at any given time.

The Veterans Health Administration employed roughly 56,000 of the new federal employees at the time, which is more than a quarter, according to the data from March 2024. About 6.5 percent of the IRS’s workforce, or over 14,000 workers, were new hires.

OPM’s memo on Monday also instructed agencies to think about using paid administrative leave for workers in any component that is being “eliminated or restructured,” or when a worker’s role changes due to “workforce realignment ”. “”.

“When a new agency manager decides that the employee’s absence from the office ‘is in the interest of the agency or of the government as a whole,’ it may also be appropriate,” Ezell wrote. As they carry out agency restructuring projects or decide how best to manage agency components moving forward, agencies are encouraged to make use of the flexibilities brought about by paid administrative leave. “”.

In particular, for federal employees who are being investigated or awaiting a decision on an adverse personnel action, OPM issued final regulations at the end of the Biden administration that limited paid administrative leave to 10 days annually. However, the final rule’s 270-day compliance deadline for agencies was mentioned in the Trump administration’s OPM.

As a result, Ezell wrote, “OPM believes that agencies are not required to comply with the administrative leave rule and new regulations until September 13, 2025, the deadline for agencies to issue their own implementing regulations.”. OPM asks agencies to wait for OPM to review and approve any agency-specific rules before issuing them. “.”.

Agency heads should have “broad discretion” to temporarily transfer federal employees or place them “on detail” for a maximum of 120 days, according to the memo from OPM, which also mentioned that an employee may be temporarily assigned to “unclassified duties.”. “”.

Ezell wrote, “These specifics may give agencies more flexibility during the transition period and as agencies close offices and reorganize.”.

Owen cited a different OPM memo that was released on Monday as well, stating that it might complement the administrative leave, details, and transfer reminders. Agencies are granted “unlimited use” of Temporary Transition Schedule C appointments for a limited period of time under the separate memo.

According to OPM’s memo, the expansion “is necessary to drive the unusually expansive and transformative agenda the American people elected President Trump to accomplish.”.

However, agencies must use a full-time equivalent (FTE) position to make room for the new hire in their workforce when they appoint a temporary Schedule C employee.

Theoretically, agencies could put the current worker on administrative leave while they finalize the necessary paperwork to assign them new responsibilities, Owen stated. That might be one way to frame that. “”.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed more than two dozen executive orders, including several that targeted federal employees, including a federal hiring freeze. These memos were released at the same time.

It was not surprising that the Trump administration was planning to reorganize the federal workforce. However, Ron Sanders, a federal workforce policy specialist and former chairman of the Federal Salary Council during the first Trump administration, stated that the discussion of the workforce’s future should focus much more on agency budgets.

You run the risk of causing serious skills imbalances if you don’t know what your long-term workforce plan and budget are. During an interview, Sanders stated, “Hiring freezes and attrition leave you with your worst employees who have no other options and leave you vulnerable to your best employees who will surely leave for other opportunities.”. Congress must provide agencies with a budget, and agencies must use that budget to determine the number of full-time equivalent federal employees, employees in the pipeline, and contractors they will have. “”.

Owen went on to say that the Trump administration’s wide range of declarations and executive actions on Monday were not shocking.

“The ability to appoint and bring in individuals for the administration may help push together some of these items whenever a new administration comes in and announces very broad and bold policy changes,” Owen stated. The fact that they will require experts in that field may indicate that they are hiring their own staff to handle it. “”.

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