By Douglas Gillison

(Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration has temporarily agreed not to fire any more staff at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a court order issued on Friday, offering workers there an 11th-hour reprieve ahead of feared mass layoffs.

The decision came after a week in which the Trump administration dismissed scores if not hundreds of the 1,700 workers at the consumer watchdog long reviled by conservatives. Billionaire Elon Musk has vowed to destroy the CFPB as part of a broad purge of the federal labor force.

In court on Friday afternoon, union representatives had said they believed the government was planning to eviscerate the CFPB, possibly as soon as the same day, beginning the process of dismissing all remaining staff, canceling the agency’s lease and returning its funds to the Federal Reserve.

The White House Office of Management and Budget, which is also run by the CFPB’s acting director, Russell Vought, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case was filed Thursday by an employee union and other organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Friday’s agreement is to remain in place until the court decides on their request for a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration’s plans.

In a consent order negotiated by both sides and signed by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the Justice Department also agreed the government would not to destroy or remove any of the agency’s vast quantities of sensitive consumer and commercial data generated over the last 12 years or transfer any of its available funds back to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Earlier on Friday, CFPB officials had directed all staff to take administrative leave, effectively continuing the work stoppage the Trump administration put in place last week.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by David Gregorio)

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