In the hours since learning from a source familiar with federal meetings that probationary federal employees are on the chopping block, News4 has heard from a number of federal workers.
One of those workers is Johanna Hickman, a consumer financial protection bureau litigator charged with investigating violations of the law on behalf of consumers. Like many others, Hickman found out that she is out of a job.
"It’s particularly shocking to get this termination as a lawyer," Hickman said. "Because of course we have professional and ethical obligations, and I’m currently counsel of record in pending litigation."
The News4 I-Team learned that at least 216,000 probationary employees could be impacted, making up about 9.4% of the total federal workforce.
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Another federal worker, who didn't want to share her name due to privacy concerns, told News4 she had been terminated from the Veterans Affairs department. She said the department's Human Resource Service Center made no strides to ensure protections for workers, for their medical coverage, or for care and major medical needs.
That former VA employee said she is pregnant and in the middle of prenatal treatment.
"I don’t really care about the salary, money will come, but to lose my healthcare coverage in the middle of my pregnancy and all I get is “best of luck to you” is a showcase of civil irresponsibility and a lack of morality for human rights," she said in a message to News4.
"Our phones have just been -- our phones and emails have just been ringing off the hook," said Michelle Bercovici, a partner with Alden Law Group. "Which is just unprecedented, and quite frankly, heartbreaking."
Alden has worked for the past 15 years to protect federal employees. This week, Bercovici's firm has been busy explaining what rights and protections long term and probationary federal workers have.
"What I'm seeing is people have been working for the government for 10 years, or even for 364 days and they hit their 365th day, or they got a new position, but then they're terminated," Bercovici said. "Those people should actually, they have due process rights."
"If you have actually finished your probationary period, you have the right to notice, an opportunity to respond before you're terminated, and if the agency doesn't give you that notice and opportunity to respond, you can appeal that to the Merit Systems Protection Board," Bercovici said.
If you or someone else is a federal worker who has been terminated, Bercovici shared a few first steps to take.
"There's federal employee and insurance compensation," Bercovici said. "And there is also temporary continuation of healthcare coverage through the government. The healthcare coverage are forms that you should be getting through your employer."
The federal government's largest union, the American Federation of Government Employees, responded to the mass probationary terminations on Friday.
"Employees were given no notice, no due process and no opportunity to defend themselves in a blatant violation of the principles of fairness and merit that are supposed to govern federal employment."
Bercovici said that federal unions could be key, as more lawsuits are expected in the future.
"It remains to be seen how these suits will play out, but given the absolute lack of precedent for these actions and how these mass terminations are so different than anything we've ever seen in the federal government, I would fully expect this to be challenged in court," Bercovici said. "These actions should absolutely be examined."
