Some of the federal employees in Juneau who were fired as part of President Donald Trump’s federal staffing purge have been reinstated because federal judges in two separate cases recently ruled the mass layoffs unlawful.
Reinstatements have reached the National Park Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Forest Service in Juneau this week. NPR reports that roughly 24,000 people will be reinstated nationwide due to decisions handed down from federal district courts in San Francisco and Baltimore.
But not all who have been reinstated are going back to the office.
Gregory Larsen, a biologist in Juneau who studies marine mammals, was fired from Glacier Bay National Park on Valentine’s Day. On Wednesday at around 5 p.m. he got a call from his supervisor saying he’d been reinstated, with back pay. On Thursday morning, he got another call inviting him to return to the office.
“They are removing the termination notice from my record and treating the time since then as administrative leave,” he said.
But he said the reinstatement was done over the phone and he has nothing in writing from the agency.
“From my perspective, it’s disconcerting not to have a paper trail because I’ve already been victimized by people skirting the laws,” he said.
Larsen will return to work on Friday.
The staffing cuts targeted employees who were within the one or two-year probationary periods at their agencies. Their termination letters said that they were being let go due to their performance. But many had positive reviews and the firings came from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, not their supervisors.
Aaron Lambert, a fisheries management specialist who was fired from NOAA last month, received a letter via email on Monday saying he’s been temporarily reinstated with back pay, but is on administrative leave until further notice.
“I feel good that it’s a step in the right direction and everything, but I have no idea what to expect at this point,” he said.
The Trump administration has appealed the court decisions that ordered the reinstatements. If higher courts overturn the rulings, Lambert and Larsen could be terminated again.
“So I guess we’re just kind of in limbo at the moment,” Lambert said.
Federal agencies have not released a tally of the workers who were fired over the last couple of months, nor have they reported how many regional workers have been reinstated.
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