WASHINGTON — A government watchdog wants more than 5,000 probationary employees to be reinstated at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the latest example of resistance to President Donald Trump ‘s efforts to downsize the federal workforce.

The Office of Special Counsel made the request Friday and disclosed it Tuesday. If the request is granted by the Merit Systems Protection Board, the employees would be back on the job for 45 days as an investigation continues. At that point, the board could be asked to make a final decision to reinstate them.

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger said the firings “appear to have been carried out in a manner inconsistent with federal personnel laws.” It’s possible that he could reach similar conclusions about employees at other departments as well.

Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. They were often summarily informed that they were being fired for poor performance.

The case is proceeding at a moment of turbulence for the federal workforce and the offices responsible for protecting workers’ rights. Not only are administration officials laying off thousands of employees, Trump wants to remove obstacles by firing Dellinger and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board nominated by President Joe Biden.

Both attempts have been blocked through litigation, most recently on Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled that Trump did not have the power to remove Harris from office “at will.”

The attempt to fire her was illegal because he didn’t seek to remove her for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” the judge said.

The one-sentence email that informed Harris of her firing didn’t cite any of those reasons, Harris’ attorneys said.