A federal judge ordered the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) to reinstate mediators and other staff who had been fired or placed on leave since Donald Trump was sworn in as president in January.
FMCS is a federal agency that offers free mediation to unions and employers in hopes of preventing a strike or lockout. At the beginning of the year, FMCS employed approximately 143 mediators and 60 other employees. By the end of March, five or six mediators and 10 other employees remained.
Some mediators departed the agency in February in response to the Jan. 28 “fork in the road,” email, which encouraged federal employees to resign and collect a salary until September 30.
Then in mid-February the FMCS, along with many other agencies, terminated probationary employees under orders from the White House. A court ordered FMCS and other agencies to reinstate the fired probationary employees, but a higher court later overrode that order.
Finally, on March 26, FMCS notified almost all remaining staff that they would be placed on administrative leave and terminated.
A lawsuit filed April 4 by 21 states, including Oregon and Washington, challenged the firings at FMCS and a handful of other federal programs that operate under missions and budgets that were approved by Congress.
On May 13, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the federal government to reinstate employees from FMCS and two other small agencies who had been involuntarily placed on leave or terminated under Trump’s orders. The judge’s order is a temporary measure while the court case continues. The federal agencies filed a motion to pause the reinstatements while they appealed the judge’s ruling, but that motion was denied June 5.
FMCS notified former employees that they were eligible to be reinstated. In a status report filed with the court May 20, government attorneys said FMCS expected to be able to fully reinstate involuntarily terminated employees within 30 days.
Neither FMCS nor the office of the Rhode Island Attorney General, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, responded to questions about how many employees were eligible to be reinstated or how many had accepted the offer to return to their old jobs. It isn’t clear if those reinstated workers are back to performing mediations.
Another lawsuit challenging the FMCS firings was filed April 14 by the AFL-CIO and labor unions. That lawsuit is still pending.
