Dem
47
GOP
53
As we noted yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has issued a
preliminary injunction
barring the administration from firing government workers during the shutdown. Will that deter anyone? No, it just means
a bit more paperwork. In particular, on Sept. 30, Undersecretary of Defense War for Personnel and Readiness
Anthony Tata signed a
memo
ordering HR personnel to "act with speed and conviction" to terminate poorly performing civilian employees of the
DoD DoW. This memo deprives workers of their rights, speeds up the process, and makes the criteria for firing
someone whatever the boss wants. One defense civilian said: "Looks like we are all 'at will' employees now."
Secretary Pete Hegseth has already been firing high-ranking people accused of being "woke" right and left (OK, make that just left), but the memo could greatly accelerate firings, especially lower down. It could act as a work-around for Illston's ruling since nominally employees will be fired for "poor performance" rather than arbitrarily. Also, these workers will be fired one-by-one, not a mass firing, so it might evade the rules Illston laid down. In addition, the memo allows for managers to be fired if they fail to fire people who are "poorly performing"—for example, they don't want to follow illegal orders. Prior to the memo, poorly performing workers were first given instructions on what they had to do to improve their performance and then given a chance to improve. That is all gone now. Sean Timmons, a managing partner at Tully Rinckley, a law firm specialized in federal employment and military law, said: "They are gutting federal employee protections significantly." The Pentagon has already cut about 60,000 people, or about 8% of its workforce. Timmons thinks Hegseth will use the new memo to get rid of more people not with the program.
Hegseth is not hiding his idea of "poorly performing" at all. He ordered the Pentagon to fire disloyal civilian workers—that is, workers who don't subscribe to Donald Trump's agenda. Note that the usual (and legal) definition of "poorly performing" is different from "not actively working to support the president's agenda." (V)