Despite a court order, several fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees have yet to receive an update on their employment status.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claims to have followed the court’s directive to reinstate affected workers, yet many are still awaiting communication.
According to Fierce Health care, the situation remains unclear for some, as employees continue to report confusion and lack of information regarding their reinstatement.
HHS updates on terminations and reinstatements
In a March 17 filing, Jonathan Gardner, the Acting Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital at HHS, provided a detailed update on the department’s efforts to comply with the court’s order.
HHS distributed 3,248 termination notices out of 8,466 probationary and trial-period employees. This represents 38% of the workforce originally affected by the firings under the Trump administration.
Of those terminated, 2,537 were placed on administrative leave through March 14, with 88 removed from leave and fired before their probationary period ended.
In this regard, HHS has extended the administrative leave status of the 2,855 probationary and trial period employees who were scheduled to be terminated after March 14, 2025 following the completion of the previously scheduled administrative leave period… – said Gardner.
CDC workers still await updates on their employment status
For CDC employees, the situation remains unclear. The agency placed 711 employees on indefinite administrative leave before the court’s ruling, but those workers have not received any updates.
Some employees have expressed confusion, stating they were not placed on indefinite leave and their termination letters, which were reviewed by Fierce Healthcare, indicated that the leave period should have ended by March 14.
These workers have also reported not receiving any communication from either HHS or CDC, with some claiming that they have no access to their work emails.
One anonymous employee said,
I’m actually not sure what my leave or employment status currently is, in all honesty.
Another worker added,
HHS is either not complying or not informing us of their actions.
Discrepancies in HHS’s reinstatement process
While Gardner stated that HHS had notified all impacted probationary workers, many employees have reported receiving no correspondence or only receiving updates well past the court-imposed deadline.
The reinstatement process also appears to be inconsistent, with some workers being reinstated or placed back on administrative leave, while others remain in limbo.
HHS explained that some workers were granted exceptions, and others were determined not to have been properly classified as probationary employees.
The discrepancy in the numbers of terminated versus reinstated employees has left some workers confused about their status. For example, while some were reinstated or granted extended leave, others continue to be left without clear answers about their employment situation.
Court’s ruling and the government’s response
A judge had ordered the government to reinstate probationary employees across nearly all federal agencies by March 17 at 1 p.m. ET, with only a few exceptions.
This ruling came after a lawsuit filed by a group of state attorneys general, which claimed the government’s actions had harmed states, especially in terms of increased public health insurance costs.
The judge explained,
The court is not blind to the practical reality that the relief being ordered today will have far-reaching impacts on the federal workforce and will require the government to expend considerable resources in an effort to undo the reductions in force that have been put into place.
When, as is likely the case here, the government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task.
In its response, HHS acknowledged the difficulties in implementing the court’s order, stating that the process of reinstating employees would involve significant administrative work.
Specifically, all employees offered reinstatement into full duty status would have to be onboarded again, including going through any applicable training, filling out human resources paperwork, obtaining new security badges, restoring to benefits programs and payroll, receiving government furnished equipment, and other requisite administrative actions, such as auditing personnel requests to ensure any actions that would have otherwise been taken during their period of separation are completed – The agency said.
HHS warned that there could be further disruptions as the court’s decision might be appealed, leading to more changes in employee statuses.
Additionally, an appellate ruling could reverse the district court’s order shortly after terminated employees have been reinstated or have returned to full duty status,
The filing continued.
In short, employees could be subjected to multiple changes in their employment status in a matter of weeks.
