Some federal employees who were fired, then rehired, earlier this year by the Trump administration are receiving notices that they were initially let go in a “government-wide mass termination” and not for failing to do their jobs.
The corrections, ordered by a federal judge, have begun to trickle out to some employees at the Interior Department and other federal agencies, according to an email viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News and federal employee unions. They are being sent out to correct the record on the first round of dismissals made by the Trump administration, even as federal government leaders have pivoted to planning large-scale layoffs that could again fire staff.
“While we do not comment on individual personnel matters, the department has supplied appropriate notices in full compliance with all laws, rules, regulations and judicial orders,” said Elizabeth Peace, an Interior spokesperson.
The Trump administration in February fired thousands of federal workers who had been recently hired or promoted — including 1,712 at Interior — as part of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting efforts to shrink the federal workforce.
