The Trump administration is taking steps to comply with court orders to reinstate tens of thousands of fired workers

The Trump administration appears to be preparing to comply with multiple court orders to quickly place tens of thousands of federal workers fired during their probationary periods, according to officials at three agencies briefed on the plans. 

The recently hired, or in some cases recently promoted or transferred, employees will not immediately go back to their jobs, but instead be placed on paid administrative leave. The employees are impacted by two separate court rulings issued on Thursday, which could lead to different outcomes for different workers. 

All told, more than 30,000 federal employees were fired in recent weeks after the Trump administration directed a mass purge of probationary staff. In the U.S. District Court for Northern California, Judge William Alsup issued an injunction on the firings and ordered employees at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury to be reinstated. Alsup directed agencies to act immediately and did not include a timeline for sunsetting the order. 

Later on Thursday night, a second federal judge, based in Maryland, ordered probationary employees at 18 federal agencies to be reinstated by March 17, either to their jobs or to be placed on administrative leave. Employees at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration and U.S. Agency for International Development are slated to rejoin the payroll. 

That ruling came only through a temporary restraining order, which is set to expire March 27 at 8 p.m. unless the court takes further action to extend it. 

Officials briefed on the matter at two agencies said individuals there were working over the weekend to comply with the order and bring employees back on the payroll, likely to administrative leave. At GSA, which was impacted only by the second judge’s order, employees have already received notices that they will be reinstated. 

“By this memorandum, your trial period termination notice issued on [redacted] is rescinded,” one such notice, obtained by Government Executive, read. “You will be placed on administrative leave during the reinstatement period until notified otherwise.”

The notice mentioned the action was a result of the court order and said the rescission would last at least through March 27. It remains unclear whether employees impacted by the first court order, which did not include a set end date, will receive any indication of the length of their reinstatement. 

USDA previously reinstated the 6,000 employees it fired after the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered it to do so, though those employees were also placed on administrative leave. MSPB’s order will expire next month, and plaintiffs in the federal court cases suggested the department was hoping to run out the clock on that ruling without ever placing the workers back into their duty stations. 

Both federal judges and MSPB said the firings were unlawful as they did not consider employees’ performance or conduct and improperly relied on directives from the Office of Personnel Management. 

The Trump administration has appealed both court rulings. Neither the White House nor OPM responded to requests for comment.