Appeals board orders thousands of probationary USDA employees back to work for now - 5,600 probationary workers at Department of Agriculture will remain on the job for at least another 45 days

The firings of over 5,000 probationary employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture may have been unlawful, and the workers should be reinstated for at least the next 45 days, a federal civil service board ruled Wednesday.

A workers’ board is reinstating – at least temporarily – almost 6,000 fired probationary workers from the Department of Agriculture, according to a newly issued order obtained by CNN.