A federal judge ruled on Friday that US President Donald Trump’s administration had unlawfully directed the firing of thousands of federal workers, but the judge did not order their reinstatement, citing recent US Supreme Court decisions.
US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco stuck by his preliminary conclusion in the case that the US Office of Personnel Management in February unlawfully ordered numerous agencies to fire probationary employees en masse.
Unions, nonprofits and Washington State sued after Trump’s administration moved to fire roughly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have less than a year of service, though some are longtime workers in new jobs.
Alsup said ordinarily he would “set aside OPM’s unlawful directive and unwind its consequences, returning the parties to the ex ante status quo, and as a consequence, probationers to their posts.”
“But the Supreme Court has made clear enough by way of its emergency docket that it will overrule judicially granted relief respecting hirings and firings within the executive, not just in this case but in others,” Alsup wrote.
In April, the Supreme Court paused a preliminary injunction Alsup issued in the case requiring six agencies to reinstate 17,000 employees while the litigation moved forward.
Alsup said too much had happened since the Supreme Court’s April decision for him to order employees to be reinstated now, as many had gotten new jobs while the administration transformed the government.
But Alsup, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said the workers “nevertheless continue to be harmed by OPM’s pretextual termination ‘for performance,’ and that harm can be redressed without reinstatement.”
He ordered 19 agencies, including the US Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Energy, Interior and Treasury, to update the employees’ files by November 14 and barred them from following OPM directives to fire workers.
Everett Kelley, the American Federation of Government Employees’ national president, in a statement said Alsup’s ruling “makes clear that thousands of probationary workers were wrongfully fired, exposes the sham record the government relied upon, and requires the government to tell the wrongly terminated employees that OPM’s reasoning for firing them was false.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
Trump administration unlawfully directed mass US worker terminations, judge rules
https://arab.news/83jzz
Trump administration unlawfully directed mass US worker terminations, judge rules
- Unions, nonprofits and Washington State sued after Trump’s administration moved to fire roughly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have less than a year of service, though some are longtime workers in new jobs
France to vaccinate cattle for lumpy skin disease as farmers protest against cull
- The announcement comes after several outbreaks of the highly contagious disease prompted authorities to order the culling of entire herds
PARIS: France will vaccinate 1 million head of cattle in the coming weeks against lumpy skin disease, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said on Saturday, as protesting farmers blocked roads in opposition to the government’s large-scale culling policy.
The announcement comes after several outbreaks of the highly contagious disease prompted authorities to order the culling of entire herds, sparking demonstrations by farmers who consider the measure excessive.
Lumpy skin disease is a virus spread by insects that affects cattle and buffalo, causing blisters and reducing milk production. While not harmful to humans, it often results in trade restrictions and severe economic losses.
“We will vaccinate nearly one million animals in the coming weeks and protect farmers. I want to reiterate that the state will stand by affected farmers, their losses will be compensated as well as their operating losses,” Genevard told local radio network ICI.
France says that total culling of infected herds, alongside vaccination and movement restrictions, is necessary to contain the disease and allow cattle exports. If the disease continues to spread in livestock farms, it could kill “at the very least, 1.5 million cattle,” Genevard told Le Parisien daily in a previous interview.
A portion of the A64 motorway south of Toulouse remained blocked since Friday afternoon, with about 400 farmers and some 60 tractors still in place on Saturday morning, according to local media.
The government, backed by the main FNSEA farming union, maintains that total culling of infected herds is necessary to prevent the disease from spreading and triggering export bans that would devastate the sector.
But the Coordination Rurale, a rival union, opposes the systematic culling approach, calling instead for targeted measures and quarantine protocols.
“Vaccination will be mandatory because vaccination is protection against the disease,” Genevard said, adding that complete culling remains necessary in some cases because the disease can be asymptomatic and undetectable.
France detected 110 outbreaks across nine departments and culled about 3,000 animals, according to the agriculture ministry. It has paid nearly six million euros to farmers since the first outbreak on June 29.
