Guidance posted Monday on chcoc.gov says agencies “can and should begin issuing RIF notices to employees of DEIA offices now." Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
OPM has told agencies to begin issuing RIF notices to employees of DEIA offices under President Trump’s first-day executive order to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices.”
That order—repealing several Biden administration orders encouraging such efforts—established a goal of taking those actions within sixty days. OPM’s initial guidance of January 21 had told agencies to identify potentially affected positions, notify employees in them that they face a layoff and place them on administrative leave by the end of the following day.
That first guidance also gave agencies until this Friday (January 31) to submit written plans to OPM for “executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office.”
However, guidance posted Monday on chcoc.gov says agencies “can and should begin issuing RIF notices to employees of DEIA offices now. Agencies are reminded to define the competitive area solely in terms of the DEIA office where the employees worked,” it adds.
The definition of a “competitive area” is important because of the rights employees have to remain employed in a RIF by displacing someone else with lower retention status, based on the nature of the appointment (permanent over temporary), veterans preference, length of service and performance ratings. Those “bump and retreat” rights, though, apply only to positions within the competitive area, meaning that affected employees would not be able to take other positions within the agency.
Even in light of the new guidance, it’s unclear exactly when the RIF actions will begin. Also still unknown is how many employees are potentially affected, since OPM has not made public the agency counts of such positions.
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