SAN FRANCISCO — (AP) — Labor unions are asking a federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday for an emergency injunction blocking the mass firings of probationary federal employees by President Donald Trump's administration, saying officials not only lack the authority to order terminations but that notices to workers were premised on a lie of poor job performance.

On the other side, attorneys for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will argue before U.S. District Judge William Alsup that the office did not create a “mass termination program” as plaintiffs say, but asked agencies to review and determine whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.

“Agencies were responsible for deciding which probationary employees to keep and to terminate,” said Charles Ezell, acting director of the personnel office in a declaration filed with the court, adding that a determination of fitness must “take into account the existing needs and interests of government."

"An agency must determine, and OPM has determined, that only the highest-performing probationers in mission-critical areas demonstrate the necessary fitness or qualifications for continued employment,” he said.

The complaint filed last week by a coalition of five labor unions and five nonprofit organizations is among multiple lawsuits pushing back on the administration's efforts to vastly shrink the federal workforce, which Trump has called bloated and sloppy. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired and his administration is now aiming at career officials with civil service protection.

There are an estimated 200,000 probationary workers — generally employees who have less than a year on the job — across federal agencies. About 15,000 are employed in California, providing services ranging from fire prevention to veterans’ care, the complaint says.

Elon Musk has led the purge through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, roiling the workforce with demands including a Saturday email sent through the personnel office ordering workers to list five things they did last week or risk getting fired. The Office of Personnel Management later said that the edict was voluntary, although workers could face similar requests in the future.

Unions have recently struck out with two other federal judges.

A judge in Washington, D.C., last week denied a motion from unions to temporarily block layoffs because he found their complaint should be heard in federal labor court. Earlier this month, a judge in Massachusetts said unions suing over a deferred resignation offer weren't directly affected and so lacked legal standing to challenge it.

The coalition in San Francisco, which includes groups representing veterans and small businesses, seeks an injunction to stop more firings and to rescind those that have already happened.

Congress has determined that each agency is responsible for managing its employees and the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as a human resources department for the federal government, lacks the authority to terminate workers in the way that it did, according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say in their complaint that numerous agencies informed workers that the personnel office had ordered the terminations, with an order to use a template e-mail informing workers their firing was for performance reasons.

Probationary employees of the National Science Foundation, for example, were told by the foundation that it had decided to retain its workers but was overruled by the Office of Personnel Management, according to the complaint.

The coalition argues the judge should issue a temporary restraining order in part due to the ongoing “irreparable harm” to the organizations and their members, including the loss of work and benefits and disruption of critical government services.

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