Probationary employees previously laid off at the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Agency have been reinstated, according to the agency’s top two officials under the Biden administration.
Lisa Gomez, former assistant secretary for employee benefits security, said she’s heard from “several people” who were terminated from EBSA during probationary employee terminations that they’ve been reinstated.
Specifically, many told Gomez that the American Federation of Government Employees, a federal employee union, “sent around an email to bargaining unit folks” stating that laid-off probationary employees would be reinstated as of March 10.
A spokesperson for the union confirmed that 120 people were reinstated at the Labor Department.
Federal agencies, including EBSA, have seen significant changes under the Trump administration, which has directed major staffing cuts and other changes to “maximize efficiency” throughout the federal workforce.
Across the Labor Department, “management made a decision last week to recall all of their probationary employees,” according to Ali Khawar, former principal deputy assistant secretary for employee benefits security.
“I don't think it was explicitly labeled that way, but I think (that the decision's) pretty clearly in response to multiple courts recognizing that this action, in the context of other agencies, was blatantly illegal,” Khawar said.
On Feb. 27, a federal judge in California ruled that the Office of Personnel Management’s order for agencies to terminate probationary employees was unlawful, and the judge directed a slew of agencies, not including the Labor Department, to rescind their efforts, according to the memorandum opinion.
The Labor Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Gomez said she’s not aware of any conditions for employees being offered reinstatement, she noted that some may be hesitant to come back to the agency.
“In a lot of ways, the damage has been done, and it’s going to take a lot to reassure people who have been through something like this,” she said.
“If your employees are not certain whether you want them there, you're not really going to retain people the way you want to,” Khawar said.
If Congress doesn't reach a deal to pass another spending bill by March 14, there will be a government shutdown, and "that would impact everyone," Gomez added.
There also other efforts in place to reduce the federal workforce, as OPM issued a memo in late February directing agency heads to submit their plans by March 13 for eliminating positions and restructuring their agencies, Gomez noted.
Both Gomez and Khawar said staffing cuts at EBSA would be detrimental to its operations.
While leading EBSA, Gomez said the agency often dealt with budget issues, but staffing reductions were always “the last resort,” because the agency has so much work to do, including statutory requirements under SECURE 2.0.
“I can't say strongly enough how problematic I think cuts to personnel at EBSA would be for the system, for plan sponsors, not just for the agency itself,” Khawar said. “It will kind of deeply impact the agency's ability to fulfill its role.”
