Washington: A US appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for President Donald Trump's administration to fire thousands of workers.

According to Qatar News Agency, the decision affects federal employees in Washington, D.C., and 19 other US states, which had filed lawsuits challenging the mass firings that began after the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed them to identify probationary workers who were not essential.

The relevant agencies said that most of the employees who were fired, about 25,000 in total, were offered the option to return to their jobs. However, the majority of them were placed on temporary paid leave instead of being reinstated. A judge had issued a ruling last March stating that granting the fired employees paid leave was consistent with his orders regarding their reinstatement.

The US Supreme Court had on Tuesday paused a separate ruling by a judge in San Francisco requiring six agencies to reinstate nearly 17,000 probationary workers, including the Department of Defense, which has said that it fired about 360 people.

The Court said that the non-profit organizations who were granted an injunction in response to their lawsuit lacked the legal standing to sue.