A federal judge’s order halting layoffs of government workers during the shutdown does not apply to HHS because the affected employees were not represented by the unions who filed the lawsuit, a representative for the department said in an Oct. 17 filing.
On Oct. 15, Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston granted a temporary restraining order halting the layoff of federal employees. The lawsuit was filed by two unions representing government workers, the American Federation of Government Employees and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. She said in her ruling she believes the unions can demonstrate the administration’s actions were illegal, in excess of authority and “arbitrary and capricious.”
HHS’ Chief Human Capital Officer Thomas Nagy said that the 982 reduction in force notices sent out to department employees on Oct. 10, are not subject to the judge’s order because those employees are not represented by either union. He said that the CDC formerly had AFGE bargaining units, but HHS terminated those collective bargaining agreements on Aug. 26 following a March 27 executive order from President Donald Trump barring certain federal agencies from labor-management relations programs.
Mr. Nagy noted in his filing that HHS initially issued about 1,760 layoff notices on Oct. 10, but only intended to issue 982. The notices that were issued in error have been rescinded. According to The New York Times, the employees affected by the mixup included leaders of the nation’s measles outbreak response team, staff who work on the “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” and those working on the ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of the agency’s epidemic intelligence service officers, individuals responsible for investigating disease outbreaks, were also sent erroneous layoff notices.
Of the 982 HHS layoffs, about 600 were CDC employees, NPR reported Oct. 16. HHS employs more than 79,000 workers and 32,000 were furloughed on Oct. 1.
