Thousands of Workers to Convert to “At-Will” Employees as OPM Proposes New Job Category

The Trump Administration is creating a new category of federal workers, that will reclassify thousands of public employees as “at-will” employees, making them easier to fire.  

The new rule, proposed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), enacts many of the features of “Schedule F” that was proposed in President Trump’s first term as the president continues his bid to reshape the federal workforce. 

Under the updated civil rules, government employees working on policy matters will be reclassified as “Schedule Policy/Career” employees. That means they will lose civil service protections as they are reclassified as “at-will” employees. 

Workers with “important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties” are subject to the reclassification. Exceptions include federal employees who implement policy rather than shape it including U.S. Border Patrol agents and wage and hour inspectors. 

“This rule 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,” stated a White House fact sheet. 

The White House notes that Schedule Policy/Career positions are still career positions that will be filled through an existing nonpartisan, merit-based hiring process.

“These employees will keep their competitive status and are not required to personally or politically support the President, but must faithfully implement the law and the administration’s policies,” said the fact sheet. 

About 50,000 positions, or two percent of the federal workforce, is likely to be moved into the new category, according to a White House fact sheet.

No workers are affected until the president issues another executive order on the issue to direct the reclassification of designated employees. 

Competing Views

The White House says the new rule will tackle “systemic issues in federal workforce accountability, addressing unaccountable, policy-determining federal employees who put their own interests ahead of the American people’s.”

But opponents see it differently.  

“Politicizing the career civil service is a threat to our democracy and to the integrity of all the programs and services Americans rely on,” said American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National President Everett Kelley.  

“Career federal employee job protections were enshrined in law (Civil Service Reform Act of 1978) by a near-unanimous bipartisan Congressional majority in the wake of Executive power abuses by the Nixon administration. Congress approved federal employee job protections not to avoid accountability to the President, but to ensure taxpayer services will be delivered effectively and efficiently to all Americans and without regard for partisan affiliation,” said Marcus Hill, president of the Senior Executives Association (SEA).

As for what’s next, there is a 30-day public comment window, after which point OPM will finalize the regulations. The president will then have to issue another executive order finalizing the conversion of positions into the new “Schedule Policy/Career” category. 

Two organizations, Democracy Forward and Protect Democracy, are hosting a webinar on May 1 at 2pm ET to discuss the proposed rule.