A June 3 lawsuit against former Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleges that the decision to fire 10,000 federal employees was based on faulty data, Bloomberg Law reported June 4.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former HHS employees, claims that “hopelessly error-ridden” personnel records were relied on to make the layoff decision. The employees also accuse DOGE, HHS and others of violating the Privacy Act, a 1974 law that mandates accurate records in personnel decisions.
It also seeks no less than $1,000 per person in financial damages and a court ruling that finds the firings unlawful.
“Because the decisionmakers at these agencies were working with such flawed data, they barely knew who they were cutting,” Clayton Bailey, an attorney for Civil Service Law Center, a law firm that backs federal workers, told Bloomberg Law.
The news comes after Mr. Kennedy acknowledged in early April that mistakes were made when laying off the 10,000 employees and suggested that around 20% of the affected employees could get their jobs back.
A spokesperson for HHS told Becker’s that the organization does not comment on ongoing or pending litigation.
Editor’s note: This article was updated June 5 at 8:30 a.m. CT.
