Probationary workers who were re-fired this month from the Commerce Department say their health insurance is being terminated earlier than they expected.

The workers had expected their health insurance to run into May.

Instead, they received notices this week that Commerce is backdating their termination to an earlier date, meaning the health insurance ran out last week.

Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which advocates on behalf of federal workers, said he heard from “dozens” of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staffers who received such notices.

“At a time when the President is publicly touting how investors have recently made millions, even billions, of dollars off recent swings in the stock market, it is cruel and inhumane for the Commerce Department to short-change fired NOAA........

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