Trump seeks to limit legal options for fired federal workers

By Courtney Rozen

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is trying to make it harder for fired federal employees to contest their dismissal, according to a government plan released on Monday, by limiting their right to appeal their dismissal to an independent board.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s HR office, proposed ending the right of fired federal employees to dispute their dismissal before the independent Merit Systems Protection Board, according to the plan. Instead, fired workers would need to appeal to OPM, an office whose director reports to U.S. President Donald Trump.

If the proposal is implemented, it would build on Trump’s earlier efforts to shrink the size of the federal government. Trump has made mass layoffs of government employees a centerpiece of his second term. At the same time, he has undermined avenues for those same workers to dispute their dismissals, including by firing members of government offices that enforce job protections for federal employees. 

The Merit Systems Protection Board, the organization listed in Monday’s proposal, mediates disputes between federal workers and their employers. The board saw a spike in new cases after Trump took office for the second time. The board’s caseload jumped 266% from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, according to government records, compared to the same period the year before. 

OPM’s proposal would “give the administration free rein to terminate huge swaths of the federal workforce without meaningful independent oversight,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union for U.S. federal workers. 

The U.S. government shed 317,000 federal employees in 2025, OPM Director Scott Kupor said late last year. Kupor told Reuters that only a fraction of those who left were fired, with the majority opting to accept a buyout or leave on their own. Reuters could not independently verify the accuracy of Kupor’s statement. 

OPM will be fair and impartial when handling complaints from fired federal employees, said McLaurine Pinover, a spokeswoman for the office. The goal is to give the workers “timely correction when errors occur,” she said, adding that agencies should be able to “restructure responsibly and fairly.” 

(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)