By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Aviation Administration is reinstating 132 employees who were fired on February 14 after a federal judge in Maryland ordered their return, a union said on Monday.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the probationary employees who were fired as part of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency federal government cuts will receive back pay and should return to duty status on March 20.
"This is a win for public safety and for a critical workforce dedicated to the FAA’s mission," union President David Spero said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month that the FAA cut 352 probationary employees out of about 45,000 total, but said none were in "safety critical" positions.
The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Transportation Department cut hundreds of other probationary workers across other agencies.
The firings raised alarm after a series of plane crashes have sparked concern about U.S. aviation safety.
U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore directed the administration to reinstate tens of thousands of federal workers, saying 18 agencies that fired probationary employees en masse violated regulations governing the process for laying off federal workers. The government had claimed it fired individual workers for performance reasons.
"There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired," Bredar said.
The union said those who were fired in February included technical operations, mission support services, air traffic services and flight standards service.
"Haphazardly eliminating positions and encouraging resignations creates a demoralizing effect on the workforce," Spero said. "We are pleased that the expungement of these letters referencing the false performance claims allows these employees to continue their service to the American flying public without this unsubstantiated blemish on their work record."
The Trump administration sent air traffic controllers buyout offers but later said they were not eligible, also declaring other safety officials, including Transportation Security Administration officers, ineligible.
The FAA remains about 3,500 controllers short of targeted staffing levels and in many places controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks
Duffy has announced plans to boost hiring.
"The FAA is already short 800 technicians and these firings inject unnecessary risk into the airspace in the aftermath of four deadly crashes in the last month," U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, said last month.