Union workers told to name DEI colleagues or risk ‘harmful consequences’

WASHINGTON — Federal employees received emails Wednesday warning they could face consequences if they don’t report colleagues working in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility positions who may have gone unnoticed by government watchdogs.

“We are aware of efforts by some in the government to hide these programs by using coded or imprecise language,” said emails sent to government employees and obtained by NBC News.

Employees were asked to notify the Office of Personnel Management if they are “aware of a change in a contract description or staff job description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies.”

“There will be no negative consequences for timely reporting of this information,” the email said. “However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences.”

Employees across multiple agencies and departments have received emails with the same language as Wednesday night.

White House spokesmen did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the “adverse consequences” or how the directive could be enforced.

Office of Personnel Management issued a note On Tuesday, the heads of department and board will send the notification to the employees no later than Wednesday at 5 p.m. The office provided a template for email that several heads used. It is unclear whether any department or agency heads have changed or omitted the DEI reporting language for their employees.

The Trump administration had also called on agency leaders to place federal employees in DEI roles on paid leave by the end of the workday Wednesday.

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office Monday to shut down DEI and access “mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities of the federal government, by whatever name they appear.”

“These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination,” said the OPM template letter that agency leaders could distribute to employees.

The move is the latest in a series of anti-diversity efforts that Trump has already made. On Monday, he also signed an executive order saying the government would only recognize two genders, effectively denying the government recognition of non-binary and gender non-conforming people.

Also this week, Trump revoked an executive order intended to ban discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors. The decades-old order had called for “affirmative action and prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin,” according to a overview by the Ministry of Labour.