In the US, federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees will be put on forced leave by Wednesday evening as newly inaugurated president Donald Trump starts to wind down DEI efforts in the government.
The order to put DEI staff on leave came via the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and is the first step ahead of permanent job cuts.
A memo from the OPM said that federal DEI workers would be “placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all [DEI] initiatives, offices and programs”, the FT reported.
Government funding for federal DEI initiatives will also be cut as Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget to end all DEI mandates, policies and programmes. This means that DEI hiring policies intended to improve DEI in federal agencies will stop.
The president’s officials said the changes would “end DEI inside the federal government”.
Trump’s orders will also bring an end to existing executive orders from past presidents that promoted diversity across the federal agencies. This includes a 2021 order by the Biden administration that urged the federal workforce to be a model for DEI, “where all employees are treated with dignity and respect”.
The ditching of DEI follows an executive order Trump gave on his first day back in office called ‘Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing’.
In his inauguration speech, the president said: “We will forge a society that is colourblind and merit-based.”
Responses on social media both applauded and condemned the move.
On LinkedIn US-based Lisbon Wilder, associate professor of business administration, human resources at Bolles College-Prep Private School, said: “Meritocracy must be administered with integrity as to not disqualify qualified minorities from employment opportunities.”
Wilder said that in the past segregation laws had systematically held back talented minorities from employment. He added: “We must ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
“President Trump promised the African American community that he intends to manifest MLK’s [Martin Luther King’s] dream by creating a colourblind society so meritocracy must have checks and balances as to prevent its abuse by stakeholders and powerbrokers.”
Other people expressed their delighted at the rollback commenting that the DEI policies had been “toxic”, and “racist and sexist” and that they “agreed with performance based hiring”.
