Order strips job protections from workers earning up to about $200,000 a year and deemed to be ‘influencing’ policy
Michael Sainato at The Guardian:
Donald Trump has signed an executive order making it easier to fire thousands of the best-paid workers in the US government aspart of a broader drive by his administration to overhaul the federal workforce. The order, released by the White House and the office of personnel management (OPM) on Wednesday, strips job protections from a mostly senior group of federal workers – about 8,000 employees – earning up to almost $200,000 a year, and who are deemed to be “influencing” government policy.
In a call previewing the move, Scott Kupor, director of the OPM, which oversees the government’s human resources policies, said the administration needs to employ people willing and able to carry out orders to achieve the administration’s policy priorities. “You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism obviously for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at will,” he said. About 348,000 employees, over 11% of its overall workforce, have left the federal government since October 2024.
The latest order shows Trump is persisting in his efforts to discipline and fire career employees whom he sees as undermining his political goals, a year after billionaire Elon Musk left his post overseeing an effort to slash government spending and payrolls. Trump believes his agenda was hampered by career federal workers who opposed his policies during his first term. During Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to reclassify federal employees to “at will” under schedule F, but the rule was rescinded by the Biden administration before it took full effect. Labor union leaders have argued the reclassification serves as a step backward to the 19th-century spoils system, where jobs were given to loyalists rather than based on merit. The number of workers affected by the order is well below a ceiling estimate of up to 50,000 who could have been subject to new rules. Senior administration officials on the call said Trump could expand the grouping but had no immediate plans to do so.
Dangerous tyrant Donald Trump signs an executive order that strips away job protections for about 8,000 federal workers on GS-15 status.
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NPR: Trump strips job protections from 8,000 federal workers
