looks like now they’ll have to work more hours....
It could have been a weeding out process to identify the hard workers and the slackers. Being fired for not working more when asked sounds like defendable grounds for termination.
EC
Every company and organization has workers that started out as good employees. Once they get well past their probationary period some discover the channels to “quiet quit” or “coffee badging” dumping the work load on everyone else.
The already hard workers will have to work longer hour(s) to cover that one or two hours a day those quiet quitters actually worked until real workers are found to replace them.