About 100 workers at the US Census Bureau received reduction-in-force layoff notices Oct. 10 as President Donald Trump moves to slash the federal workforce during the government shutdown.
The affected workers—located at a call center in Tuscon, Ariz.—were told they would be laid off starting in early December due to a “lack of funds,” according to Johnny Zuagar, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 241.
“These are good people that are being caught up in a situation they have nothing to do with,” Zuagar said. “We hope this will be rescinded once funding is restored.”
The Census Bureau has lost about 1,500 workers since January to the deferred resignation program, a Department of Government Efficiency initiative which incentivized staff to resign, Zuagar said.
The Census Bureau did not immediately respond to request for comment on the layoff notices.
The Trump administration cut at least 4,100 total workers from the federal government during the current shutdown and may fire more soon, according to court documents government lawyers filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Oct. 10.
The filing said departments of Health and Human Services purged between 1,100 and 1,200 employees, and Treasury terminated around 1,500. About 300 were let go at the Department of Commerce, and more than 400 were cut at the Department of Education as well as at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Federal-sector unions that are suing the White House Office of Management and Budget in the Northern District over the mid-shutdown worker terminations urged Judge Susan Illston to halt the layoffs immediately, ahead of an Oct. 15 hearing.
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