OPM Establishes Safeguards Against Schedule F

NTEU Files Lawsuit to Protect Merit-Based Civil Service
An executive order to convert federal nonpartisan career jobs into political favors for loyalists is unlawful and undermines the nation’s merit-based civil service, according to a lawsuit filed late Monday by NTEU.

“Reclassifying large numbers of employees … with the intent of making them at-will employees is contrary to Congress’s intent in establishing broad protections for most federal employees,” the lawsuit states.

No administration should be allowed to take away basic due process rights from career public servants who earned their jobs based on their professional qualifications and replace them with political appointees. A similar order in 2020 was never fully implemented.

Under the order, agency leadership would be instructed to identify which jobs to place into a new category, and in the process, make them easier to be fired arbitrarily.

“The American people deserve to have day-to-day government services in the hands of qualified professionals who are committed to public service and stay on the job regardless of which political party holds the White House,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald. “Yesterday’s Executive Order is a dangerous step backward to a political spoils system that Congress expressly rejected 142 years ago, which is why we are suing to have the order declared unlawful.”

NTEU’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues the order wrongly applies employment rules for political appointees to career staff; deprives federal employees of due process rights that they were promised when they were hired; and ignores Office of Personnel Management regulations.

“The employees we represent staff the federal agencies that secure the nation, safeguard the public health, promote economic growth and protect consumers from fraud. Their jobs require training and expertise in their chosen field so as to provide the best possible service to all Americans, not passing a political loyalty test,” Greenwald said. “Once again, NTEU is ready to defend federal employees who chose a career in public service and took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.”

NTEU petitioned the Office of Personnel Management for additional safeguards for employees in the event of an executive action like this and those regulations became final in May 2024.

MSPB Taking Steps to Expand Employee Rights
A proposal from the Merit Systems Protection Board would allow employees to file a challenge if they are involuntarily moved from the competitive service to the excepted service, and NTEU filed comments supporting the proposed expansion of appeal rights.

Further Efforts
NTEU has asked many of the agencies where we represent employees to put prohibited personnel practice protections in place for any possible Schedule F employees. Without them, employees in a potential Schedule F are not covered by the law protecting federal workers from most “prohibited personnel practices” such as political coercion, nepotism, or a supervisor granting someone else an unlawful preference. Agencies should lock in these protections.

Schedule F in the News

Trump revives executive order aiming to strip some federal employees of civil service protections (Federal News Network)

Trump reinstates plan to strip protections from federal workers (Washington Post)

Biden administration locks in plans aiming to block Schedule F for good (Federal News Network)

Biden moves to defang political assaults on federal workforce (Politico)

Biden finalizes rule to prevent return of Schedule F (Federal Times)

New rule strengthening federal job protections could counter Trump promises to remake the government (AP)

Trump’s plan to gut civil service protections was harsher than estimated (Washington Post)

Schedule F plans show ‘far higher’ impact on federal workforce than first anticipated, NTEU warns (Federal News Network)

Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision (Associated Press)

The fight to stop a cornerstone of Trump's 'retribution' agenda is underway (NBC News)

The Open Plot to Dismantle the Federal Government (The Atlantic)

Biden Administration Aims to Trump-Proof the Federal Work Force (The New York Times)

Trump plan to gut civil service triggers pushback (Reuters)

Biden administration proposes new rule that would limit Trump purge (Washington Post)

Federal labor coalition urges ‘prompt’ finalization of OPM’s anti-Schedule F proposal (Federal News Network)

Democrats rally behind rule to prevent return of Trump’s Schedule F (Federal Times)

Regulations aimed at derailing a Schedule F revival proposed by OPM (Government Executive)

Union coalition throws support behind OPM’s anti-Schedule F rules (Government Executive)

Federal employees want you to keep your politics out of their work (The Hill)