The US government has issued a memo to federal agencies telling them to prepare to lay off staff who work in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programmes.
The memo, which comes from the US Office of Personnel Management, orders all employees working in DEIA roles to be placed on paid leave by 5:00pm local time today (22 January).
On Tuesday (21 January), President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for an end to these programmes and hiring schemes, which he calls “dangerous, demeaning and immoral”.
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The memo says: “Send a notification to all employees of DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.”
On his first day in his second term as president on Monday (20 January), he repealed a number of executive orders promoting LGBTQ equality, and issued an order decreeing there were only two genders. He rescinded a total of 78 executive orders passed during his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration.
“The Biden administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ’diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” said the executive order pledging an end to equality programmes.
Trump also issued a hiring freeze on all federal positions other than military personnel, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security or public safety.
He has asked for a list of federal employees who are on probationary status and has asked managers to make recommendations as to whether they should remain in their roles.
Anyone with a job offer who does not start work until after 8 February could have their offer rescinded, and the order has directed federal agencies to remove most jobs from the government jobs board, while no new jobs can be created with limited exceptions.
Federal workers have also been asked to return to the office five days a week.
Several large US companies have ended or scaled back their own DEI programmes since Trump’s election win in November, including McDonald’s, Walmart and Meta.
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