Judge denies union bid to halt Trump firing of government workers

WASHINGTON - A US judge on Thursday 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.

"The anxiety was running through the floor, like I personally felt anxious because I was one of [the] last people to get that email," an IRS probationary worker who was laid off Thursday told AFP.

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

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 the 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.

MANAGERS HAD 'NO IDEA'

The probationary worker who spoke to AFP, on condition of anonymity to freely discuss his former employer, said that managers at the agency had "no idea" the layoffs were coming.

"I think DOGE has been very careful to make it seem like the agencies themselves are making the decisions, when I can tell, our managers yesterday were just as shocked as we were," he said.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a free-ranging entity run by Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a top Trump ally and donor.

On Thursday, the laid-off IRS worker said staff at his agency were "a little resigned, a little defeated, including our managers... some of them were, seemed like they were on the verge of tears."

The worker had been a revenue agent on a team that oversaw tax collection for corporations and wealthy individuals.

"I think Republicans have really kind of twisted the narrative in the press to say that the IRS has hired a bunch of people to go after middle- or working-class folks, when really a lot of the people that were hired were hired to go after large corporations and high net worth individuals," he said.

'CRUEL'

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 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.

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.

The fired IRS worker said he had felt "between a rock and a hard place" when he received the buyout offer, facing either quitting his job or being fired anyway.

"For all of this to happen in such a cruel fashion, just it doesn't make sense to me," he said.