Trump invokes Schedule F to make it easier to fire government workers

In a move that will make it easier for the Trump administration to fire federal government employees without long procedures, US President Donald Trump has initiated the process of reclassifying 50,000 federal staffers into political appointees or at-will workers. This is being done under Schedule F, according to which the civil service protection of government employees gets reduced.

Aimed at downsizing federal workforce

The move is a sequel to one of Trump’s executive order signed shortly after he took charge. This was aimed at downsizing the federal workforce. Trump announced the move on X. “If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” he wrote on his social media site. “This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business."

Reacting to the development, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said that the President’s latest move could adversely affect the efficiency of the federal government.

“President Trump’s action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government’s merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on,” he said in a statement as quoted by the Associated Press.

The move is expected to make it easier to terminate federal employees involved in “important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties''.

The statement further stated that the “empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles”.

Trump is planning to sign another executive order to conclude the process after the rule is finalized.

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'Will increase accountability'

According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the change in the categorization of Federal workers following the new order is aimed at increasing accountability among career federal workers and also at streamlining the process of removal of employees on grounds of misconduct or poor performance.

“Policy-making federal employees have a tremendous amount of influence over our laws and our lives,” the agency’s acting director, Chuck Ezell, said in a statement.

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During his first term, Trump issued a Schedule F order in 2020 that sought to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees. But it was swiftly repealed by Joe Biden in an order upon taking office that nullified Trump’s original action.

The Biden-era rule barred career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees or as other at-will workers.

(With inputs from Agencies)