(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday said President Donald Trump lacked the power to remove a Democratic member from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which hears disputes between government agencies and their employees' unions, and ordered that Susan Tsui Grundmann be reinstated to her post.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C. is a setback to Trump's bid to bring independent agencies like the FLRA under his control, and potentially to his efforts to drastically shrink the federal workforce.

Sooknanan's decision reinstating Grundmann to the agency gives it a 2-1 Democratic majority until her term expires in July.