Interior Department officials have appealed an order that they rehire terminated employees, saying that would impose a "significant administrative burden" on the agency and be confusing.

Interior Department officials have asked for a stay of a federal judge's order that they rehire employees, including those from the National Park Service, who were fired earlier this year. In doing so, the department maintains that going through rehiring would be confusing and add "significant administrative burdens" for the department.

"Among other things, all reinstated individuals will have to be onboarded again, which would include the labor-intensive processes of coordinating human resources efforts and paperwork, issuing new security badges, re-enrolling affected individuals in benefits programs, and calculating and processing the amount of any financial obligation that the Department may owe as a result of the reinstatement offers and the amounts, if any, that reinstated individuals request to have withheld for various work-related benefits," reads an affidavit (attached below) filed along with the stay request, which was filed Friday.

"... offering reinstatement to terminated probationary or trial period appointees will interfere with the effective functioning of the Department. On and after February 14, 2025, the Department has made meaningful changes to address the challenged terminations, including reassigning the duties performed by the terminated individuals, many of whom would have no duties to perform if they accepted reinstatement," it added.

The filing seeks a stay pending an appeal of the judge's ruling.

Roughly 1,000 National Park Service employees were fired on Valentine's Day, when the Trump administration fired thouands of workers across the federal government who hadn't finished their probationary periods. 

Federal Judge William Alsup on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction broadening a temporary restraining order against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its acting director, Charles Ezell, finding the termination of probationary federal employees illegal because OPM had no authority to order it. While the judge said federal employees could be fired if agencies followed established procedures, in this case OPM provided a template for agencies to use as termination letters for the impacted staff, which suggested employees were being fired for poor performance.

"It’s a sad, sad day when our government would fire a good employee and say it’s based on performance when they know good and well that is based on a lie," the judge said.

Interior's appeal was supported by an affidavit from Mark D. Green, Interior's deputy assistant secretary for Human Capital, Learning, and Safety, who claimed that Interior did not rely on OPM language when it notified the terminated workers. Instead, Interior "independently developed language used in the termination notices that informed affected individuals of these personnel decisions," he said.

Terminated Park Service workers said the email they received, despite having received positive job reviews, stated that, "[T]he Department determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department's current needs, and it is necessary and appropriate to terminate, during the probationary period, your appointment to the position of XXX at XXX Park within the National Park Service." 

In the appeal, Green stated that probationary workers "have extremely limited protections against termination," and that they essentially were working on "extended tryouts for finalized appointments. Supervisors evaluate probationary and trial period appointees to determine whether the individuals would be a good fit for long-term employment. While working throughout probationary or trial periods, individuals receive no assurance of final appointments and of becoming employees."

Also on Friday, six Democrats in the U.S. Senate introduced legislation calling for fired Park Service and U.S. Forest Service workers to be reinstated.