Dozens of employees who attended a diversity training course that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos encouraged during President Donald Trump’s first administration have been placed on paid leave as part of Trump’s targeting of DEI programs, a union official told NBC News.
Sheria 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.
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.
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.
“It looks like they’re entrapping people, because they encouraged people to take these trainings … and are now maybe using these trainings as a basis to put them on administrative leave,” Smith said.
She added that she is worried that Trump, who has said he wants to eliminate the Education Department, hopes “employees will eliminate themselves.”
“I think it is shock and awe. They’re trying to send us emails that make no sense and are super confusing to intimidate us or to make us run scared so we quit,” she said.
“They’re 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’ salary if they just resigned,” Smith added. “So it seems as if you’re choosing between affirmatively resigning, where they’re saying that you might possibly get paid eight months’ salary and benefits, or eventually getting fired.”
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.
In the email shared with NBC News, which was sent during Trump’s first term, a human resources official with the Education Department wrote to encourage employees to take a two-day voluntary course as part of the agency’s “Diversity Change Agent” training in March 2019.
The email said: “We have 25 seats available for this course. The Department’s 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’s capacity to attract and retain a diverse workforce. This effort is essential to sustaining a clear and effective Department-wide program.”
The email also said, “Thank you for helping us move toward achieving the goal of 400 Diversity Change Agents ED-wide. Your positive actions are the catalyst on our journey to achieving ED’s diversity and inclusion objectives.”
Subodh Chandra, a civil rights lawyer who is representing one of the employees placed on paid leave in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, said his client was appointed to the employment, engagement and diversity and inclusion council formed during Trump’s first term by his political appointees Kimberly Richey and Kenneth Marcus. Chandra said his client is a West Point graduate, an Army veteran and a former prosecutor who is confused about being placed on leave.
“My client, a veteran, did nothing to violate any executive order. Nor did any of his similarly situated colleagues. He doesn’t even run a ‘DEIA’ project. He was only a member of an inactive committee on which he was appointed by Trump’s own political appointees from the first term,” Chandra said.
Overall, dozens 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 as part of Trump’s effort to eliminate DEI initiatives throughout the federal government, according to Smith and Holder.
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.
Holder said separately that at least 14 employees at the Energy Department were put on paid leave as part of Trump’s executive order targeting DEIA programs. She said that only three of the employees had titles specifically related to diversity and inclusion positions and that the others had jobs that included tasks like encouraging veterans to work for the Energy Department, as well as working with employee survey data to make workplaces better. Many of the positions were part of the “culture office,” but most did not work on DEIA programs.
“People are worried they are going to lose their jobs,” Holder said. “People are worried and angry.”
A spokesperson for the Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.