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Updated: March 24 at 10:25 ET
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has given a federal court the clearest look yet at the number of probationary workers fired under the Trump administration, and how many have been reinstated so far, but fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees say they have still not been contacted or provided a status update on their employment.
In a March 17 filing (PDF), Acting Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital at HHS Jonathan Gardner said the department distributed 3,248 termination notices out of a total 8,466 probationary and trial period employees. This is lower than the first reported 5,200 employee figure but still accounts for 38% of probationary or trial period employees.
Of the fired employees, 2,537 workers were placed on administrative leave through March 14, Gardner said. However, 88 of those workers were removed from administrative leave and fired before the end of their probationary period.
In the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), long before the court ruling was issued, 711 workers were placed on administrative leave indefinitely. The court was told these 711 affected probationary employees at the CDC, who will remain on leave, did not receive an update from the agency because their indefinite administrative leave status did not change.
While Gardner said HHS notified all impacted probationary workers, and that the agency still needed to complete “additional administrative processes,” some workers are still telling Fierce Healthcare they did not receive correspondence until far after the court-imposed deadline, if at all. It varies whether employees received written notice over email or heard the news over the phone.
By mid-day March 18, three CDC employees say they have received no correspondence from the HHS or CDC. They do not believe they have ever been placed on indefinite leave, and their termination letters, reviewed by Fierce Healthcare, state that the administrative leave period concludes at the end of March 14. The employees do not have access to their work email. NBC News is also reporting CDC workers have not received any update regarding their employment status.
Following the court order, HHS said it reinstated all affected probationary employees, including the 88 workers terminated before the end of their probationary period.
“In this regard, HHS has extended the administrative leave status of the 2,855 probationary and trial period employees who were scheduled to be terminated after March 14, 2025 following the completion of the previously scheduled administrative leave period…” said Gardner.
The agency acknowledged the number of affected probationary employees issued terminations versus those getting reinstated and receiving an extended administrative leave do not match. HHS said they “granted exceptions” to let some probationary employees return to work, while other the agency determined some workers should not be classified as probationary after all.
HHS did not return a request for comment from Fierce Healthcare seeking additional clarity to accurately break down this discrepancy. HHS and CDC also did not immediately return a request for comment asking why CDC employees have not received a reinstatement notice, as required by the court order.
About 10% of impacted National Institutes of Health (NIH) workers received notice up to 30 minutes after the court’s deadline due to technical issues, said Gardner.
In the days and weeks following the probationary firings, workers continue to get reinstated to their position and have their terminations rescinded, either by appeal or on a case-by-case basis. But for many employees, the agency's response to the latest court ruling has confused them further.
“I’m actually not sure what my leave or employment status currently is, in all honesty,” said one fired worker granted anonymity to speak freely.
“HHS is either not complying or not informing us of their actions,” said another worker.
Judges order probationary employee reinstatements
A judge told the government last week it must reinstate fired probationary employees at nearly all federal agencies, delivering the strongest legal resistance yet to the Trump administration’s plans to reshape the federal workforce.
In a lawsuit (PDF) filed by a collection of state attorneys general, the judge said probationary employees in HHS, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and other departments must be reinstated by Monday, March 17 at 1 p.m. ET. Only employees in the Department of Defense, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the National Archives and Records Administration were exempted. This ruling does not apply to probationary employees rightly fired for performance issues.
Defendants are prohibited from conducting additional reductions in force, unless they comply with federal law, the court added (PDF). A longer-term injunction will be considered after 14 days on March 26. An appeals court rejected the government's attempt for an administrative stay March 21, deciding the employees must get reinstated until a court rules otherwise.
Thursday’s court order follows a similar decree from a judge in a different case, in which the government was told it must reinstate federal workers in the VA under an OPM staffing directive.
The judge said states were harmed in numerous ways—including through increased public health insurance payouts—and that the government did not give adequate or advance notice as required under law. This was shown by Jeffrey Grant, former deputy director for operations in the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, in an affidavit. Grant stated the CMS chief human resources officer did not review resumes, speak with fired employees or know of their individual performances.
“The court is not blind to the practical reality that the relief being ordered today will have far-reaching impacts on the federal workforce and will require the government to expend considerable resources in an effort to undo the reductions in force that have been put into place,” the judge explained. “When, as is likely the case here, the government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task.”
HHS said March 17 the agency is complying with the court’s demands but finds the request to be potentially damaging to the agency and predicted it could “cause turmoil” to impacted workers.
“Specifically, all employees offered reinstatement into full duty status would have to be onboarded again, including going through any applicable training, filling out human resources paperwork, obtaining new security badges, restoring to benefits programs and payroll, receiving government furnished equipment, and other requisite administrative actions, such as auditing personnel requests to ensure any actions that would have otherwise been taken during their period of separation are completed,” the agency said.
“Additionally, an appellate ruling could reverse the district court’s order shortly after terminated employees have been reinstated or have returned to full duty status,” the filing continued. “In short, employees could be subjected to multiple changes in their employment status in a matter of weeks.”
Approximately 24,000 probationary employees have been fired under the Trump administration. The judge determined the government should not “benefit from chaos of its own making.”
The order comes as employees are offered early retirement and urged to sign voluntary separation plans. The OPM has also requested agencies, in preparation of more firings, to submit reorganization plans, consolidate duplicative offices and downsize the federal real estate footprint.
Reports have circulated the HHS wants to move forward with new firings. After already slashing the workforce at SAMHSA regional offices, the workforce in this department could be cut by 50%, reports The New York Times.
It’s expected firings could come soon at the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families, reported Politico. The ONC could see its department cut from 180 to 30 people and moved under the CMS. A filing with the Federal Register further outlined a restructuring of the Office of the General Counsel at HHS.
“Then, if the government wishes to continue pursuing its reduction in force agenda, the government must start from square one, acting in compliance with federal law,” the judge said Thursday.
A filing with the Federal Register further outlined a restructuring of the Office of the General Counsel at HHS.
Last week, the OPM sent a memo to federal agencies telling them to conduct a “comprehensive review” of collective bargaining agreements with unions and to identify any agreements that “interfere” with the agency’s right to fire its workforce.
Another memo (PDF) March 17 asked agencies to submit collective bargaining expenses and agreements to OPM by April 18, saying the government has spent large sums of money to negotiate agreements and has “imposed significant costs on the American taxpayer.”
The White House did not return a request for comment.