The Trump administration was ordered Wednesday to temporarily reinstate thousands of probationary U.S. Department of Agriculture employees. 

At the request of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the directive was issued by Cathy Harris, the chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent federal agency. Under the new order, the fired workers can return to their jobs for 45 days during the OSC’s investigation.

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The OSC is investigating the Trump administration’s firing of probationary employees, up to 5,950 of whom are USDA workers. That number includes 3,400 workers within the U.S. Forest Service, which falls under the USDA, who were laid off in February. 

Probationary employees are typically on the job for less than a year and don’t have civil service protection. Once new federal hires have completed a one-year probationary period, they gain access to the right to appeal a termination to the MSPB. 

“The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment,” Office of Personnel Management spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover told NPR. 

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However, special counsel Hampton Dellinger has argued the Trump administration overstepped its bounds when it terminated thousands of probationary employees. Dellinger believes the USDA did not look at individual employee performance when deciding who to lay off. 

“Whether USDA terminated each probationary employee therefore depended entirely on the nature of that employee’s position, not on the adequacy of their performance or fitness for federal service,” Dellinger wrote on Feb. 28.