The administration of US President Donald Trump has taken another tough move in cutting the government apparatus, ordering the dismissal of employees during their probationary period.
The US government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has met with agency leaders to direct them to start firing probationary employees, The Hill reported on February 13. Federal employees, after being hired, will have a probationary period of 1 to 2 years depending on the agency. During this time, they still enjoy workplace protections but are also more vulnerable to firing than full-time employees who have completed their probationary period.
“The internship is still an application period, not a formal hiring. The agencies are taking independent action following the recent hiring freeze. This is in support of President Trump’s efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government to better serve the American people,” an OPM spokesperson said in a statement on February 13.
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The Hill, citing sources familiar with the matter, said OPM had directed the layoffs and that only a few special cases would be exempted, although it was unclear what the exemptions would be based on. The move is different from what OPM said a few days ago, when it only required agencies to fire underperforming interns.
US President Donald Trump at a press conference at the White House on February 13
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal employee union, said it would fight the layoffs, saying they would undermine government efficiency.
There is no current data on how many people will be affected by the layoffs. US media reports say the number could be as high as 200,000. OPM’s most recent public data shows that as of March 2024, there were 220,000 federal employees who had been employed for less than a year.
According to The Guardian on February 14, the layoff process has begun since the beginning of this week. The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Departmentof Education , and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are among the US agencies that have announced layoffs of interns. On February 11, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring agency leaders to “make large-scale staff reductions.”
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