Press Release: Former NOAA Probationary Employees Sue to Challenge False Performance Justifications Used to Fire Them

Class action brought by recently launched Civil Service Law Center LLP seeks damages against NOAA, Commerce, DOGE, OPM, OMB, and others

June 30, 2025 – Former probationary employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who were terminated earlier this year are suing the agency and others, alleging that the government’s claimed performance-based justifications were false. The full complaint can be read here.

In February, NOAA fired hundreds of employees who were employed in a “probationary” capacity, the 1–2-year period served by newly hired and newly promoted employees before they earn full tenure.  The agency claimed, using boilerplate language that tracked a template provided by OPM, that the employees were “not fit for continued employment because [their] ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”  Their HR paperwork coded their separations as for-cause, performance-related terminations.

In fact, many of these employees were outstanding performers.  Nothing in their records suggested any performance-related issue. 

One of the plaintiffs who was terminated, Christine Buckel, had worked at NOAA for nearly 23 years.  She received uniformly positive performance evaluations and was in a probationary period only by virtue of being recently promoted.  A review completed less than ten days before Ms. Buckel was terminated described her as “an exceptional employee” who “contributes significantly” to her office’s work, and listed “no suggestions for improvement at this time.”  Ms. Buckel was a marine biologist who helped coastal communities better understand future impacts of sea level rise, including impacts to coastal habitats and critical infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and roads.

The case was brought by Jessica Merry Samuels and Clayton L. Bailey of Civil Service Law Center LLP, a law firm they formed earlier this year to represent federal workers.

“For months, probationary employees have been told they have little recourse, even when faced with blatantly unlawful conduct,” said Bailey.  “But as we outline in this complaint, the government has a duty to make decisions based on accurate and complete records, regardless of the tenure of the employee.”

The lawsuit is based on the Privacy Act, a 1974 law that requires the government to use accurate, relevant, timely, and complete records when making adverse determinations against individuals.  The complaint was filed by four former NOAA employees on behalf of a class of hundreds of probationary workers who were fired on the same day in February using identical language.  The lawsuit alleges that the probationary purge at NOAA was the result of a coordinated effort by the leaders of DOGE, the Office of Personnel Management, the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Commerce, and NOAA.

The employees are seeking monetary damages for lost wages and diminished employment prospects, and a declaratory judgment that the layoffs were carried out unlawfully. 

“People take official government records seriously, as they should,” said Samuels.  “If the government says they are firing you for performance, there has to be some basis for saying that.”

NOAA, located within Commerce, is the nation’s leading climate science agency.  NOAA and its subcomponents, including the National Weather Service, use an array of science, technology, and research to understand our environment and protect our natural resources.

The probationary employees at NOAA were briefly reinstated after a group of state attorneys general obtained a preliminary injunction blocking the terminations.  But that injunction was stayed by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the employees were promptly re-terminated.  The mass termination of probationary employees has also been the subject of pending litigation in California.