The Trump administration is giving federal agencies until the end of this week to provide lists of all their employees who are still on the one-year probationary period, while reminding agency leaders that new hires are the easiest to be dismissed.
In a memo sent to agency heads Wednesday evening regarding “potential critical personnel actions,” Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell reminded agencies that newly hired federal employees can be terminated “without triggering appeal rights (from the Merit System Protection Board).” OPM is giving agencies until Friday to submit a report to OPM including a list of all employees currently on probation.
“Agencies should quickly determine whether these employees should be retained at the agency,” Ezell wrote in the memo.
Under federal law, federal employees holding a competitive position are considered to be on probation during their first year of service. For employees with an exceptional service commitment, the trial period can last up to two years.
The probationary period is intended to give agencies some flexibility in deciding whether a new hire is the right person for a federal job. If an agency determines that an employee has not demonstrated suitability for a federal position, it may “promptly terminate” federal employees during their probationary period, the OPM website states. Most newly hired federal employees have a limited ability to appeal a termination to the MSPB during this time.
The memo could pave the way for agencies to potentially lay off some newly hired workers while circumventing civil service protections that most career federal employees enjoy once they pass the one-year mark in the workforce federal.
Kevin Owen, a partner at Gilbert Employment Law who specializes in federal employment law, said OPM’s memo appears to be a series of reminders to agencies about existing legal flexibilities for federal workforce changes.
“But what I think is interesting is that they’re talking about it, and whether or not that’s a sign that there will be significant layoffs or layoffs of probationary employees as a first step toward downsizing of the federal sector. workforce,” Owen said in an interview.
Since the Trump administration also ordered a federal hiring freeze, most agencies would not be able to replace potentially laid-off employees.
The exact number of employees likely to be affected by OPM’s new memo is unclear. As of March 2024, the most recent data currently available in Fedscope, more than 220,000 federal employees were on a one-year probationary period. This number can provide a general indication of how many newly hired employees are in the federal workforce at any given time.
According to data from March 2024, about 56,000 — or more than a quarter — of new federal employees worked at the Veterans Health Administration at the time. More than 14,000 employees, or about 6.5 percent, were new hires at the IRS.
Monday’s memo from OPM also asked agencies to consider using paid administrative leave for employees working in components that are “eliminated or restructured,” or in cases where an employee’s role changes following a “workforce realignment”.
“It may also be appropriate when a new agency director determines that the employee’s absence from the office ‘is in the best interest of the agency or government as a whole,'” Ezell wrote. “Agencies are encouraged to use the flexibilities associated with paid administrative leave when implementing agency restructuring initiatives or determining the best ways to manage agency components in the future. »
At the end of the Biden administration, OPM issued final regulations to cap paid administrative leave at 10 days per year, particularly for federal officials who are under investigation or awaiting a decision on a adverse personnel action. But the Trump administration’s OPM stressed that the deadline for agencies to comply with the final rule was 270 days after its publication.
“OPM therefore believes that agencies are not required to comply with the administrative leave rule and new regulations until September 13, 2025, the deadline for agencies to issue their own implementing regulations,” Ezell wrote. “OPM requests that agencies not issue any agency-specific rules until such rules have been reviewed and approved by OPM.”
In the memo, OPM also said agency heads should have “broad discretion” to temporarily transfer federal employees or place them on “detail” for up to 120 days, noting that An employee may be temporarily assigned to “unclassified duties.”
“Such details may provide additional flexibilities to agencies during the transition period and as agencies undertake reorganization efforts and close offices,” Ezell wrote.
Owen pointed to a separate OPM memo, also released Monday, that he said could work in tandem with the reminders on administrative leave, details and transfers. The separate memo temporarily gives agencies “unlimited use” of temporary Transition Schedule C appointments.
The expansion “is necessary to carry out the unusually ambitious agenda of transformation and expansion for which the American people elected President Trump,” OPM wrote in the memo.
However, to appoint a temporary Schedule C employee, agencies must use a full-time equivalent (FTE) position to accommodate the new appointment within an agency’s workforce.
“In theory, agencies could place the existing employee on administrative leave while they prepare the detailed paperwork to assign them new duties,” Owen said. “That could be how it’s phrased.”
The OPM memos come just as President Donald Trump signed more than two dozen executive orders on his first day in office, including several actions targeting federal employees, such as issuing a federal hiring freeze .
The Trump administration’s plans to restructure the federal workforce came as no surprise. But Ron Sanders, a federal workforce policy expert and former chairman of the Federal Wage Council during the first Trump administration, said agency budgets should play a much larger role in discussions about the future of labor.
“If you don’t know what your long-term budget is and what your long-term workforce plan is, you run the risk of creating serious skills imbalances. Attrition and hiring freezes put you at the mercy of your best employees who will undoubtedly leave for other opportunities, and leave you stuck with your worst employees who have no other opportunities,” Sanders said in an interview. “Congress must give agencies a budget, and based on that budget, agencies must decide how many full-time equivalent federal employees they are going to have, how many preparation employees they are going to have, and how many contractors. they’re going to have it.
Owen added that the Trump administration’s series of announcements and executive actions on Monday were not unexpected.
“Whenever a new administration comes in, announcing a very broad, bold policy change, having the ability to appoint and recruit people to the administration can help move some of those things forward,” Owen said. “They’re going to need people who specialize in this, and that could indicate that they’re bringing in their own team to do it.”
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