Cnn
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Dozens of employees in the education department have been put on administrative leave paid on Friday as part of the larger efforts of the Trump administration to rid the federal workforce of employees associated with diversity, equity , to inclusion and accessibility efforts, two sources familiar with the move to CNN.
The ministry sent letters to the employees informing them that their messaging accounts were suspended but that they would continue to receive pay checks for an indefinite period, the sources said.
The ministry cited the advice of the Blank House and Management Office, published on January 21, which ordered government agencies to notify “all employees of the Deia offices that they are placed on remunerated administrative leave in Another vigor while the agency takes action to close / end all the Deia initiatives, offices and programs. »»
The agency is the last to deal with upheavals in the middle of the White House efforts to eliminate the dei programs within the government and reshape the federal workforce like President Donald Trump.
At least 55 employees in the education department, including higher level career workers who served the agency for decades, were informed on Friday evening that they had been placed on paid leave, according to The American Federation of Government employees, the union representing officials of the agency’s career.
“As of January 31, 2025, you will be placed on administrative leave with complete remuneration and benefits in accordance with the president’s decree on Deia and other OPM advice,” said the letter, according to a copy obtained by CNN. “This administrative leave is not made for disciplinary purposes.”
According to the union, these employees do not hold employment titles or official functions related to Deia, but they included staff members such as lawyers in matters of civil rights who manage the discrimination of students and complaints of anti -Semitism ; an employee working in a subsidy office; And a member of the artificial intelligence team helping the ministry to understand AI in education.
But Sheria Smith, president of the union for employees of the education career, told CNN that the employees placed on paid leave had attended a two -day diversity training seminar in 2019 during the first Trump administration ” which was necessary for employees of higher level and strongly encouraged for others “as well as similar training under the Biden administration. Others affected had participated in training on a day’s lunch on Dei or had volunteered with a group of agencies or a committee which provides programs such as celebrations in the month of black history.
According to the union, training in diversity training for training in the diversity of employees in the Department of Education was encouraged during the first Trump administration under the Secretary of Education Education, of which 400 employees were For 400 employees to attend the sessions.
Due to the great participation in the 2019 training seminar, the union fears that hundreds of staff members of the Ministry of Education can be assigned.
“We have filed several requests for information from the agency to clearly understand what is happening and the number of employees overall,” Smith told CNN, but the union has not received any additional information.
CNN contacted the Ministry of Education to comment but did not receive an answer.
The New York Times reported to the letters sent to the employees of the Education Department informing them that they were put on administrative leave paid.
Last month, the White House ordered the employees of the Government of Dei to be placed on administrative leave and ended the use of DEI in hiring and federal markets.
“The agency’s mission is blocked because this administration has forced these people to stop doing work for the American people,” Smith told CNN.
Agency leaders were also invited to ask employees to report any effort to “disguise these programs” in federal jobs and contract descriptions since the November elections.
