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 U.S. board that reviews the firings of federal employees on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate thousands of workers who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump's layoffs of the federal workforce.

These Agriculture Department employees must be allowed back to their jobs for 45 days, as the Office of Special Counsel continues to investigate the Trump administration’s purge of recently hired, promoted or transferred federal employees.

The fired employees were on probationary status, swept up in the administration’s push to rapidly reduce the size of the federal work force in part by targeting those types of workers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture must temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 probationary employees fired since Feb. 13, according to a ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board.

A federal appeals board has ordered nearly 6,000 USDA employees back to work after they were fired during their probationary periods last month.

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.

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,