U.S. government employees who have been fired in the Trump administration's purge of recently hired workers are responding with class action-style complaints claiming that the mass firings are illegal and tens of thousands of people should get their jobs back.

The decision is a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to drastically and quickly shrink the federal bureaucracy.

A federal personnel board on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reinstate a fired worker, as well as "numerous" other probationary employees who were fired Feb. 13 and later. The Merit Systems Protection Board issued the ruling at the request of the Office of Special Counsel,