Education Department Reinstates 65 Probationary Employees

The Education Department is reinstating 65 probationary employees who were fired in the last two months, following a court order.

The department won’t allow the employees to work and will instead place them on paid administrative leave. Jacqueline Clay, the chief human capital officer at the department, wrote in a court filing that restoring them to “full duty status would impose substantial burdens” on the agency and could “cause significant confusion and … turmoil for the terminated employees.” Additionally, an appeals court could overturn the district judge’s ruling, which could once again change the employees’ status.

At least 24,500 probationary employees across 18 federal departments are either getting their jobs back or will be placed on paid administrative leave, USA Today reported. U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Maryland ruled last week that the mass firings of probationary employees, who don’t have the same protections as other civil service employees, were likely illegal.

In a separate lawsuit challenging the terminations, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said that putting the fired employees on administrative leave didn’t comply with his order to bring them back, according to USA Today.