Judge denies union bid to halt Trump firing of government workers

WASHINGTON: A US judge on Thursday (Feb 20) denied a union bid to temporarily halt the firing of thousands of federal employees on probationary status, handing President Donald Trump another legal win in his plan to slash the government workforce.

District Judge Christopher Cooper said he lacked the jurisdiction to handle the complaint, one of several filed in courts in recent days in an effort to pause the mass sackings.

The judge's decision comes as around 6,700 workers at the 100,000-strong Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who were on probation were being laid off.

A former IRS official said most of the IRS employees being let go worked in the US tax agency's enforcement teams, less than two months before the US income tax filing deadline of Apr 15.

A number of IRS employees posted messages on LinkedIn saying they had been abruptly terminated and were seeking other opportunities.

The National Treasury Employees Union and four other unions that represent federal employees had asked Cooper to issue a temporary restraining order preventing termination of their members who are probationary employees.

Cooper, an appointee of former president Barack Obama, said his court lacks jurisdiction to hear their claims and they should instead be brought before the Federal Labor Relations Authority, a body that adjudicates federal labour disputes.

"Federal district judges are duty-bound to decide legal issues based on even-handed application of law and precedent -- no matter the identity of the litigants or, regrettably at times, the consequences of their rulings for average people," the judge said.

In his opinion, Cooper said the federal government employs 220,000 probationary employees and he noted that workers with that status at the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service and other agencies have already been sacked.

On Wednesday, another federal judge declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from firing federal employees.

Fourteen Democratic-ruled states had filed suit last week contesting Musk's legal authority but District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied their emergency request to pause his actions.

DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by Musk, the world's richest person and Trump's biggest donor.

Musk's cost-cutting spree has been met with legal pushback on a number of fronts and a mixed bag of rulings.

A judge last week lifted a freeze he had temporarily imposed on a mass buyout plan offered by the Trump administration to federal workers.

According to the White House, more than 75,000 federal employees signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.