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NBC News reports that up to 55 Education Department employees have been placed on paid leave:<\/p>\n
\nSheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents hundreds of Education Department employees, said that at least 55 employees had been placed on leave as of Friday evening and that she expected the number to grow as she learns more.<\/p>\n
The affected workers included a public affairs specialist, civil rights attorneys, program manager analysts, loan regulators and employees working to ensure schools accommodate special needs children with individualized education programs.<\/p>\n
A letter to the affected employees, obtained by NBC News, said they would continue to receive their full salaries and benefits and would not be required or expected to do any work-related tasks or to come into the office during the leave. It also said their email access would be suspended.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is in the wake of offering 7-8 month salary buyouts encouraging many government workers to quit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to make employees feel like they will soon get fired. And at the same time, they are trying to entice employees with an offer to pay them eight months\u2019 salary if they just resigned,” Smith added. “So it seems as if you\u2019re choosing between affirmatively resigning, where they\u2019re saying that you might possibly get paid eight months\u2019 salary and benefits, or eventually getting fired.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The common factor seems to be a two-day “Diversity Change Agent” training course taken years ago.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe have 25 seats available for this course. The Department\u2019s strategic and comprehensive approach to equipping staff with skills in leading a diverse workforce includes the Diversity Change Agent Program. Graduates of this course are expected to serve as role models, spending some of their official duty time performing activities designed to improve the Education Department\u2019s capacity to attract and retain a diverse workforce. This effort is essential to sustaining a clear and effective Department-wide program.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
One other detail… the timing. The course was set up and attended by participants in 2019, under the first Trump Administration under the auspices of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Secretary at the time.<\/p>\n
Smith and Brittany Holder, a spokeswoman for the American Federation of Government Employees, believe hundreds of employees attended the Diversity Change Agent trainings. An email shared with NBC News shows the Education Department in 2019 had a goal of training 400 employees under the program.<\/p>\n
Overall,\u00a0dozens of workers at the departments of Education and Energy who did not specifically work in diversity, equity and inclusion roles have been placed on paid leave\u00a0as part of Trump\u2019s effort to eliminate DEI initiatives throughout the federal government, according to Smith and Holder.<\/p>\n
Holder said the union believes that there were only two employees in specific DEIA roles at the Education Department and that both of them were placed on leave within days of Trump taking office. Then, Wednesday evening, at least two more employees who attended the diversity training were placed on leave. On Friday evening, dozens of employees who attended the diversity trainings were informed by email that they were being put on leave.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I know the usual practice is to blame the prior regime, but by 2019 Trump had been in office over two years. Seems like dirty pool to have someone in jeopardy for training conducted by your own people, doesn’t it?\u00a0 Sure would be nice to know whether this is the result of anti-administration folks trying to make any executive order as painful as possible, or over-zealous True Believers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"