US civil service board reinstates thousands of fired USDA employees

(Corrects day of order in first paragraph to Wednesday)

By Daniel Wiessner and Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -A U.S. board that reviews the firings of federal employees on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate thousands of workers who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump's layoffs of the federal workforce.

Cathy Harris, a member of the U.S. Merit System Protection Board, in a written order blocked the USDA from firing probationary employees, who typically have less than one year of service, for 45 days while a challenge to the terminations plays out.

The decision was issued a day after a federal judge blocked Trump from firing Harris, a Democrat, and removing her from her position with the board without cause before her term expires in three years.

The merit board has proved to be a potential roadblock in the Trump administration's efforts to carry out mass firings of probationary workers. It has already halted the firing of six other such employees at the request of a watchdog agency whose leader Trump has also sought to fire, Hampton Dellinger of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Dellinger, an appointee of Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, on Tuesday revealed that he had asked the board to halt the firing of thousands of USDA employees.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)