The National Park Service will put all its probationary workers fired last month back on the job, bucking an earlier plan to sequester hundreds of staffers terminated by the Trump administration on administrative leave, according to an internal email viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two people familiar with the agency’s planning.
NPS laid off more than 700 people last month in the Trump administration’s sweeping purge of newly hired or recently promoted federal employees at the Interior Department, Energy Department and other agencies. Workers in their probationary periods generally meant those hired or promoted within the previous one to two years.
Two federal judges have since determined that the firings, spearheaded by the Elon Musk-piloted “Department of Governmental Efficiency,” were likely illegal and have ordered the so-called probationary employees rehired while the court cases are heard. The Trump administration has appealed the decisions. After one appeal was denied, the Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take up the issue and allow the firings to stand.
At the Energy Department, probationary workers are slowly trickling back to their positions after receiving an agencywide email March 13 directing them to return, according to two career staffers at the agency granted anonymity to speak freely.
