By Rene Marsh and Ella Nilsen

(CNN) — Employees in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights have been told they are being placed on paid administrative leave as the agency executes the Trump administration’s executive order to wipe out all program offices it deems as tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, multiple sources told CNN.

More than 160 environmental justice employees at the EPA are impacted nationwide, according to an internal EPA email obtained by CNN and confirmed by employees who were on the agency call and have been affected, as well as three union sources.

“This is the call we have all dreaded,” acting Assistant Administrator of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights Theresa Segovia said on a recording of the call provided to CNN.

Segovia said the agency placed on leave employees who had “performed 50% or greater duties in environmental justice or non statutory work.” She added employees will receive an email indicating they will be placed on paid administrative leave with full benefits on Thursday.

Roughly 200 federal employees work in this division of the EPA.

?A federal district judge paused the Trump administration’s so-called buyout offer deadline earlier Thursday, and Segovia told the employees now placed on paid leave there was still time for them to take advantage of it.

Segovia acknowledged the judge paused the program and the deadline on the call, but despite the legal limbo, she said the deferred resignation offer was an option for the employees now on leave, telling workers she had not yet received any new guidance on the offer following the hearing.

In a sign of how fast things were changing, 45 minutes after the start of the call with employees, the US Office of Personnel Management sent out a memo regarding the judge’s pause saying the administration would comply with the ruling.

CNN previously reported that employees in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights expected the new round of paid leave notices, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

At an all-staff meeting Wednesday with employees from the office, agency leadership had told employees that it would be enforcing President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion in the division. The executive order calls for the termination of “environmental justice offices and positions.”

Agency leadership told employees the order would be implemented much like it was in the agency’s DEI office, two sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told CNN. That office was shuttered and the employees placed on paid administrative leave two weeks ago.

“If more than 100 EPA employees are placed on administrative leave tomorrow, it will be unprecedented in scope and scale. We have not experienced anything like that in the 34 years I’ve been at this agency,” Nicole Cantello, president of AFGE local 704, a union that represents EPA employees, said ahead of the paid leave notification.

Trump administration officials have said they consider environmental justice programs to be DEI initiatives. But many workers disagree.

The agency’s environmental justice programs are meant to ensure federal agency policies, grants and initiatives protect underserved communities from experiencing disproportionately negative health and environmental impacts from factors like pollution and climate change. This division was tasked with carrying out the Biden administration’s Justice 40 initiative that ensured federal funding for things like tackling the climate crisis were distributed equitably, including to underserved communities.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
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