Feb 20 (Reuters) - The Trump administration can for now

continue its mass firings of federal employees, a federal judge

ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to

halt President Donald Trump's dramatic downsizing of the roughly

2.3 million-strong federal workforce.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in

Washington, D.C. federal court is temporary while the litigation

plays out. But it is a win for the Trump administration as it

seeks to purge the federal workforce and slash what it deems

wasteful and fraudulent government spending.

The National Treasury Employees Union and four other unions

sued last week to block the administration from firing hundreds

of thousands of federal workers and granting buyouts to

employees who quit voluntarily.

The unions are seeking to block eight agencies including the

Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services,

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Department of Veterans

Affairs from implementing mass layoffs.

Cooper on Thursday said he likely lacks the power to

hear the case, and that the unions instead must file complaints

with a federal labor board that hears disputes between unions

and federal agencies.

Trump has tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a new

Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has swept

through federal agencies slashing thousands of jobs and

dismantling federal programs since Trump became president last

month and put Musk in charge of rooting out what he deems

wasteful spending as part of Trump's dramatic overhaul of

government. Trump also ordered federal agencies to work closely

with DOGE to identify federal employees who could be laid off.

Termination emails were sent last week to workers across

the federal government, mostly recently hired employees still on

probation, at agencies such as the Department of Education, the

Small Business Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau, the General Services Administration, and others.

The plaintiffs, which include the United Auto Workers,

the National Treasury Employees Union, and the National

Federation of Federal Employees, said in their lawsuit that

White House efforts, including through DOGE, to shrink the

federal workforce violate separation of powers principles by

undermining Congress' authority to fund federal agencies.

The unions said that unless the court intervenes, they will

be irreparably harmed by lost revenue from dues-paying members

who were either fired or retired early to take buyouts.

Most civil service employees can be fired legally only for

bad performance or misconduct, and they have a host of due

process and appeal rights if they are let go arbitrarily. The

probationary employees primarily targeted in last week's wave

have fewer legal protections.

A judge overseeing a similar case in Boston federal court

allowed the buyouts to move forward in a ruling on February 12,

finding labor unions that filed the case did not have legal

standing to bring the lawsuit because they had not shown how

they would be harmed by the plan.

The window to accept buyouts has now closed, and about

75,000 workers took up the administration's offer, according to

the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. That represents about

3% of the total federal workforce.

The unions are asking the judge to declare the firings and

buyouts illegal and block the government from firing more

employees or offering another round of buyouts.

In a Monday court filing, the government said the unions

did not have a right to sue because they would not be harmed by

the firings and buyouts. Granting the unions' request would also

inappropriately interfere with the president's efforts to

streamline the federal workforce, the government argued.

More than 70 lawsuits have been filed seeking to block

Trump's efforts to remake the federal workforce, clamp down on

immigration and roll back transgender rights.

The results have so far been mixed, but judges have blocked

some aspects of Trump's marquee policies, including his bid to

end automatic birthright citizenship to children born in the

U.S.

(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Daniel Wiessner in

Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi)