The agencies include the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

Most federal workers who lost their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s move to shrink the federal workforce are poised to get rehired. On Thursday, two federal judges ruled that the mass firings were conducted illegally and workers must be reinstated.

The agencies include the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

A group of U.S. government employees who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump's purge of the federal workforce filed a lawsuit on Tuesday claiming the mass firings of recently-hired workers is illegal and should be reversed.

Back-to-back rulings from judges in Maryland and California deemed that the firing of probationary workers in several government agencies violated federal employment laws. The mass layoffs did not follow proper legal procedures, according to Judges William Alsup and James Bredar.

The order by U.S. District Judge James Bredar was even more broad than a similar ruling earlier in the day from a different federal judge.

In separate rulings, judges in Maryland and California ordered the reinstatement of probationary workers fired last month across many agencies.

Two US judges have ordered several federal government agencies to reinstate the jobs of probationary employees fired en masse by the Trump administration last month. In California, District Judge William Alsup called the sacking of these employees part of a "sham" strategy that aimed to circumvent proper procedures for reducing the federal workforce.

Maryland judge orders workers reinstated at 18 agencies California judge says six agencies were improperly ordered to fire workers Biggest setback so far for bid to shrink federal workforce March 13 (Reuters) - Federal judges in California and Maryland on Thursday ordered U.