Despite a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from issuing mass firings during the government shutdown, the Interior Department plans to “issue widespread reduction-in-force notices” Monday, unions representing federal employees said in court documents filed late Thursday.
Attorneys representing the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO and other plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that “multiple credible sources” informed them of Interior’s plans “to terminate thousands of employees” beginning Monday.
The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judge Susan Illston on Wednesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from issuing layoffs during the shutdown at EPA, the Energy Department or other agencies. She also ordered the Justice Department to provide information about planned layoffs by Friday evening.
An email exchange filed into the court record shows a Justice Department attorney told lawyers for the union that the Trump administration planned to “produce the required information” Friday but did not detail how Interior planned to comply with the current court order.
Illston late Thursday night agreed to the plaintiffs’ request to move the deadline for the Justice Department to 11 a.m. Pacific time. She also set a status conference for 3 p.m. Pacific time via Zoom.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys noted that they would also seek to add additional unions to the case to prevent the potential Interior firings.
“In light of the risk of impending mass terminations at DOI, however, and Defendants’ refusal to disclose whether DOI will issue RIFs and if so how they will ensure compliance with the TRO, Plaintiffs will file their motion for leave to file an amended complaint, to add as plaintiffs additional unions representing employees at DOI (and other affected agencies), along with an emergency request to expand the TRO to protect the employees that those unions represent, tomorrow morning,” the motion said.
A former Interior Department official, granted anonymity so they could talk freely, said Thursday, prior to the court filing, that agency staffers had been bracing for RIF letters to go out next week, despite the injunction.
Reporter Kevin Bogardus contributed.
