The Model Employee Reinstatement for Ill-advised Termination (MERIT) Act requires federal agencies to reinstate probationary employees who were terminated as part of mass layoffs between January 20, 2025, and the bill's enactment date. Affected employees are those still in their probationary or trial period who were separated through involuntary termination or voluntary separation offers. The bill entitles these workers to return to the same or similar position in their former agency and receive back pay for the period they were separated, calculated based on their former salary minus any income earned in other federal positions during that time. Agencies must notify affected employees within 30 days of the law's enactment, and employees have 30 days to accept or reject reinstatement; if accepted, agencies must complete the appointment within 30 days. The bill also requires the Comptroller General to report within 60 days on the total mass terminations and affected employees, and directs the Office of Personnel Management to report on reinstatement outcomes within 90 days.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.