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EPA Workers Receive Emails Warning their Employment might Be Terminated
More than 1,100 workers at the Environmental Protection Agency got notification today that they were considered to be on probationary status and cautioning they might be fired immediately, according to an email acquired by CNN.
Probationary staff members receiving the e-mail have been working at the agency for less than a year. The emails started to head out late on Wednesday afternoon, according to an EPA union authorities.
The same message will be sent to other agency labor forces, a White House authorities stated. Across the US federal government, the current information shows there are more than 220,000 workers on probation.
“As a probationary/trial period staff member, the agency has the right to right away end you pursuant to 5 CFR § 315.804,” the EPA email to members checks out. “The process for probationary removal is that you receive a notification of termination, and your employment is ended instantly.”
“Each staff member’s status will be determined separately,” the email adds.
The email also spells out an appeals procedure employees can require to see if they are qualified for extra defense.
The technique is similar to how Elon Musk, now an essential Trump advisor, managed layoffs when he bought Twitter – make a brand-new email alias (in this case, notice@epa.gov) and then send mass termination letters to everyone on it.
The US Office of Personnel Management declined to comment, and the White House and job EPA did not respond to ask for extra comment.
The EPA union official stated these probationary workers aren’t the exact same as at-will workers; they have less security than tenured workers, but they have rights to appeal.
The union authorities stated EPA will have to make a finding regarding every probationary worker that is being release – either that their performance is poor or that they had a disciplinary problem. Veterans and those with tenure have additional layers of protection. Attorneys who work at the EPA and AFGE, the union representing a large number of EPA employees, are counseling individuals who are probationary employees on how to react to these emails and waiting to see what even more action is taken.
The EPA e-mails followed the Office of Personnel Management sent a mass e-mail to federal employees Tuesday night telling them if they resign now, job they would be paid through September 30 even though they likely would not have to work, or could at least keep working remotely.
The e-mail specified that those who pick not to opt into the program – referred to as a “deferred resignation” offer – can’t be offered “complete assurance relating to the certainty” of their position or company moving forward. It added that, needs to their job be gotten rid of, job they “will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the securities in place for such positions.”
The e-mail, sent out from a new government alias HR1@opm.gov, included the subject line “Fork in the Road,” the same subject line of a demand message Musk sent to his employees at Twitter in 2022.
Musk has made clear in recent months that a leading priority for the Department of Government Efficiency, which he is helming, would be to rid the federal labor force of staff members deemed as underperforming.
Marie Owens Powell, president of American Federation of Government Employees Council 238, said spirits at EPA was suffering.
“It’s bad, it’s most likely the worst I have actually ever seen,” she said. “I’ve never ever seen anything like this. Literally every day, folks are afraid to turn their computers on. They do not understand what message will be coming out next.”
Mass layoffs of probationary workers might disproportionately affect younger employees, stated Rob Shriver, acting director of OPM under President Joe Biden.
“There has been a longstanding struggle to get younger people interested in public service,” Shriver stated. “We strove to repair that, employing approximately 13% more individuals under the age of 30 in 2024 than 2023.