Court order won't stop some shutdown layoffs

The Treasury Department and several other federal agencies told a US judge that her order temporarily halting layoffs tied to the government shutdown doesn't apply to more than 2,000 employees who have already received firing notices.

In sworn declarations filed Friday, officials with the departments of the Treasury, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security said their reductions-in-force, or RIFs, didn't affect programs or activities involving members of the unions that had sued and won a temporary restraining order from the judge. 

Earlier this week, US District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ordered more than 30 agencies not to act on layoff notices they'd sent out or to issue new ones while she decides whether to impose a longer-term block. Illston said that, at this early stage in the legal fight, the unions appeared likely to win their claim that the administration lacked legal authority to use the budget impasse as a springboard for permanent personnel cuts.

At a hearing Friday afternoon, Illston agreed to expand her TRO to add more federal worker unions after their lawyers said there's an "urgent" need to prevent imminent layoffs and complained that the Trump administration is "too narrowly" interpreting who is protected from RIFs. 

Illston clarified her previous order to make clear that members of the unions can't be laid off for the time being even if the administration no longer recognizes those unions as collective bargaining units — which is the subject of another legal dispute.

A lawyer for the unions sparred with an attorney for the administration over whether the Department of Interior may be poised to issue new layoff notices early next week to as many as 1,500 people.

Elizabeth Hedges, who represents the Office of Management and Budget, said she was not personally aware of any further shutdown-related RIFs. She sought to reassure the judge that the government is trying to comply with her order, even as union lawyer Danielle Leonard alleged that the government is playing "hide the ball" with its layoff plans.

Illston advised Hedges to "err on the side of caution" and urge her clients to be "careful" not to violate the TRO.

The administration previously told the judge that Treasury had issued 1,377 reduction-in-force notices since the shutdown began Oct. 1. In the latest filing, though, an official stated that none of those fell within the types of programs, projects or activities spelled out in Illston's order.

Treasury dismissals were concentrated largely at the Internal Revenue Service, the department's biggest bureau, including IT and Large Business and International Division workers, according to earlier court filings. The firings also wiped out the staff of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution Fund, which supports financial services in disadvantaged areas. Congressional Republicans have urged the White House to reinstate the fund's employees.

Health and Human Services initiated layoffs for 982 employees, but an official said in a Friday declaration that those employees were in "operating and staff divisions" that lacked union bargaining units, so they weren't covered by Illston's order.

The administration identified 54 layoffs at the Homeland Security Department, but an official offered a similar explanation for why those aren't blocked in a Friday declaration.

A Homeland Security Department spokesperson declined to comment. A Health and Human Services spokesperson declined to comment. A Treasury spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the unions that sued.

The case is American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Office of Management and Budget, 25-cv-8302, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).