Federal Worker Unions Say Agencies Are Violating Firing Pause

Two federal agencies are violating a federal court order prohibiting them from engaging in mass layoffs, a group of federal worker unions alleged Tuesday.

The American Federation of Government Employees along with other unions and nonprofits said in a court filing that the US State Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development have continued to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order to drastically reduce the size of the government despite a federal court’s preliminary injunction blocking the firings.

The plaintiffs said they received reports that the State Department plans to issue widespread reduction in force notices to employees soon and that HUD had begun to re-terminate probationary workers.

Judge Susan Illston of the US District Court for the Northern District of California last month issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting federal agencies from implementing the executive order, including ceasing any current or future reduction in force notices.

The plaintiff’s Tuesday filing requests an status conference before Illston by the end of the week to resolve the dispute.

The filing said counsel for the government have argued that the conduct of the two agencies doesn’t fall under the court’s injunction. The State Department’s reduction in force “was undertaken solely at the direction” of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, not the executive order, the government allegedly said.

The filing also said employees at the Department of Health and Human Services have been placed on administrative leave in violation of the injunction, but the agency plans to reinstate them.

The case is AFGE vs Trump, N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-03698, 6/3/25.