Trump to Lay Off Federal Workers After Paralyzing Labor Panels

President Donald Trump is starting mass layoffs of federal employees while undermining avenues for federal workers to appeal their firing, leaving them with limited legal options.

Trump directed agency heads Feb. 11 to “undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force” that focus on discharging workers who “perform functions not mandated by statute,” including “diversity, equity and inclusion programs.”

That directive runs contrary to federal regulations that require agencies to write a detailed list of jobs they want to cut, taking into account factors such as geography, salary, and job description. If the Trump administration skips those steps, employees covered by union contracts may be able to take the issue to arbitration, federal employment law attorneys said. Other workers will have to take their claims to independent panels that mediate worker disputes.

“We really want to have a judge step in and say, federal government, what you’re doing is not right,” said Suzanne Summerlin, an employment attorney that represents federal workers. “But instead we have to be channeled through this longer process.”

Courts have made clear federal employees have to use these panels. A Massachusetts judge on Feb. 12 said aggrieved workers must first take their complaints to their agency and any relevant review boards before turning to the courts.

The Trump administration, however, is trying to make it harder for employees to find remedy through that process, by firing members of those independent commissions.

That will make it easier for the Trump administration to shrink agencies through a combination of layoffs and voluntary resignations. That has already started: about 75,000 employees—about 3% of the total workforce eligible—accepted Trump’s offer to resign later this year, said McLaurine Pinover, spokeswoman for the Office of Personnel Management.

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Layoff Timing

Federal agencies must provide employees with at least 60 days notice before starting a lay-off, according to federal regulations. They must rank employees to be terminated based on factors such as tenure, veteran status, and performance ratings.

Agencies may assign affected workers to a job they previously had, or offer them the position of a less-tenured worker, an option known as “bumping,” the regulations say.

Trump is ignoring these rules, attorneys say.

“It’s not readily apparent to us that the process and the regulations have been followed,” said Keir Bickerstaffe, an attorney that represents federal employees at Kalijarvi, Chuzi, Newman & Fitch P.C.

It can often take months for agencies to tick off all the steps in the downsizing process, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advocates for a well-functioning government.

OPM may “require appropriate corrective action,” if an agency violates these rules. But the agency is also the centerpiece of Trump’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, including by directing agencies to terminate employees.

Union Contracts

Hundreds of thousands of government workers belong to labor unions, meaning that any large layoffs must also comply with collective bargaining agreements to avoid legal pushback, federal employment law attorneys said. The union membership rate in the public sector was five times higher than their private-sector counterparts in 2024, according to the Census Bureau.

Union agreements often require agencies to notify the group’s leaders ahead of large-scale layoffs. Employees can file a grievance if they believe the agency failed to follow the procedures in the agreement.

For employees that don’t have that option, they can appeal their firing to the Merit Systems Protection Board, the entity charged with mediating disagreements between agencies and their workers, said Aaron Wersing, a federal employment attorney in Texas. They’ll have to point to steps that their agency skipped, or allege discrimination based on a protected characteristic, such as race or sex, he said.

For now, the MSPB still has a quorum, after Trump fired Democratic member Cathy A. Harris. But it is deadlocked with one Democrat and one Republican. The term for Ray Limon, the panel’s Democratic member, is set to expire at the end of the month. Harris is suing the Trump administration over her termination.

“Individuals who have a desire to pursue the appellate remedy are going to be stymied until there’s a quorum again,” said Nicholas Bednar, an administrative law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Trump specifically directed federal agencies to fire workers involved with diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Other Options

Employees could file an equal employment opportunity complaint with their agency if they believe they were fired because of their race or sex, federal employment law attorneys said. They later will have the option to either have an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission administrative judge hear their dispute, or ask the agency to issue a decision in their case. Either avenue can ultimately lead to federal court.

However, the EEOC doesn’t have enough members for a quorum after Trump fired two Democratic members. The agency has stated that the lack of quorum would affect only a “small subset” of federal-sector bias cases that would require a commission vote.

The president is also trying to shake up the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency that enforces labor laws for the federal workforce.

Former Chair Susan Grundmann said in a Thursday lawsuit that the president unlawfully terminated her. Her removal leaves the FLRA’s remaining two members with a partisan deadlock.

The agency has also been without a general counsel since 2017, meaning that unions must go through arbitration before appealing decisions to the FLRA.

“He’s going to keep these agencies underutilized or defunct, where they’re not able to function,” Summerlin said. “They’re just going to accrue a backlog.”