United State's President Donald Trump has ordered all Diversity, equity and inclusion employees to be placed on paid leave.
A memo, circulated internally at the Office of Personnel Management, ordered the heads of departments and agencies to inform employees that they will be put on paid administrative leave.
This comes as the agencies are preparing to close all DEI offices and programs and undertake the removal of all websites and social media accounts for those offices.
The paid leave deadline was set to 5 pm Eastern Time, Wednesday and the memo also calls on federal agencies to submit a written plan for dismissing the employees by 31 January.
One of the many executive orders signed on the day of Trump's inauguration ending the “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs across federal agencies.