Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 3:00 p.m. on April 11 to reflect recent developments by the Trump administration and new court rulings affecting probationary federal employees.
Boulder-based NOAA workers who were briefly reinstated after being fired earlier this year have once again lost their jobs, following a court decision that cleared the way for federal agencies to resume dismissals of probationary employees.
On March 17, a judge ordered the temporary reinstatement of probationary workers at 18 federal agencies – including NOAA – after finding their terminations violated federal law. Boulder NOAA employees were later returned to paid administrative leave, according to Paul Hemmick, a probationary NOAA worker.
But on April 10, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals paused that reinstatement order, allowing agencies to move forward with firings. Later that day, NOAA employees were officially fired again.
“The Department is reverting your termination action to its original effective date,” said a letter from John K. Guenther, acting general counsel for the Department of Commerce.
Some reinstated workers say they never received the full benefits during their brief return. Health insurance deductions were taken from their paychecks, but their health insurance was never fully reinstated, said Calie, a Boulder-based NOAA employee who withheld her last name for fear of retaliation. “What people are desperate for now is simply a confirmation letter stating that their health insurance has been terminated, so they can enroll in their spouse’s plan or seek alternative coverage,” Calie told Boulder Reporting Lab on Friday, April 11. “Even that basic request has gone unanswered. This is beyond negligence…it feels like weaponized incompetence.”
Calie said she filed for a temporary extension of her health coverage through her federal benefits over a month ago but was told it couldn’t be processed because the Department of Commerce hadn’t signed it.
This week the U.S. Supreme Court also lifted a second judge’s order that had blocked probationary firings at six agencies. The decisions effectively allow agencies to resume widespread dismissals of probationary employees – but litigation around the firings is expected to continue.
“This is part of why I didn’t return,” said Neesha Schnepf, a former research geophysicist for USGS in Boulder who was offered her job back on March 19. “The day they sent that email saying you shouldn’t have been fired was the day that Trump started the appeal to the Supreme Court.”
Another probationary federal employee in Boulder, who requested anonymity, was reinstated late last month, but said her agency offered her and others a so-called “Fork in the Road” deal this week: Resign now and continue to be paid until September.
“Several of us feel like we have to take it at this point,” she told Boulder Reporting Lab on April 10, adding that her agency has warned that a large “reduction in force” – or RIF – is coming.