Pentagon agency bringing back fired workers after court order

The Defense Logistics Agency is working to rehire the workers it let go at the beginning of the month after a federal judge ordered government agencies to backtrack last week, a DLA spokesperson told Inside Defense this morning.

“We have notified all of those affected that they are being brought back on board along with their supervisors, and we’re making every effort to get them back on with minimal disruption if they want to come back,” the spokesperson said.

DLA did not provide a precise figure, but it let go “fewer than 100” workers of its total 24,500-person workforce. It’s not clear what roles those employees had other than that they were probationary.

The firings, first reported by Defense One, cut “probationary employees consistent with the Department of Defense’s broader efforts to ensure resources are aligned with the department’s strategic objectives,” according to a DLA statement provided to reporters at the time.

But those efforts are being curtailed by San Francisco U.S. District Judge William Alsup, DLA confirmed, who found last week that the Office of Personnel Management’s ordered firings did not follow the law and ruled that the terminated employees must be reinstated.

A federal judge in Maryland also temporarily ruled against the probationary firings; the Trump administration is appealing both decisions, Inside Defense reported. The Defense Department pledged to keep working toward its goal of cutting between 5% and 8% of its civilian workforce, which amounts to 40,000 to 64,000 jobs.