By Simon Jessop and Richa Naidu
(Reuters) -A group of former U.S. Department of Labor officials has urged federal contractors to maintain their corporate diversity policies in the face of legal threats by the Trump administration, a letter seen exclusively by Reuters showed.
In an open letter to firms that hold federal government contracts, the ten signatories – whose tenures straddled the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations – said the administration of President Donald Trump has no authority to forbid companies from running equal opportunity programs.
Executive orders issued by Trump since his inauguration have sought to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs across federal agencies and contractors, and pressure the broader private sector to follow suit.
Opponents of DEI argue the initiatives give some an unfair advantage, but advocates say they address inequality by promoting opportunities for women, ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups.
Collectively, contractors employ around a fifth of the U.S. workforce. They include plane maker Boeing and defense company Lockheed Martin, which are among those to have pulled back on DEI programs or communications in recent weeks.
Yet the former officials who worked at the U.S. Department of Labor and its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which enforces anti-discrimination laws, said the government’s actions on DEI were legally unsound.
“Although the federal government has chosen to dismantle diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs in its own workplaces at its own peril, the government cannot prohibit private employers from engaging in fully lawful strategies to advance equal opportunity for all,” the letter said.
A push by the new OFCCP Director, Catherine Eschbach, to punish unspecified “illegal” DEI initiatives has fuelled “widespread concern and uncertainty” and prompted the signatories to write the letter in a bid to help boards stand firm, they said.
“Folks are concerned about what they should be doing, whether they need to back away from this work,” letter signatory Pamela Coukos, OFCCP Senior Advisor during 2011-2016 and now co-founder and CEO of consultancy Working IDEAL, told Reuters.
The Trump administration has characterized DEI initiatives as radical and wasteful, and steered institutions from making decisions based on merit.
“Companies who make millions off of taxpayers are welcome to DOGE themselves out of consideration for contracts if they are married to discriminatory DEI policies,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an emailed response, referring to the government’s Department of Government Efficiency, which aims to cut federal spending.
“Americans made clear in November that they do not want to fund these radical, wasteful priorities.”
Contractors needed to weigh their response to the Trump edicts carefully despite the “chaos and confusion,” the letter said, adding that DEI had protected firms legally by giving them tools to avoid potentially discriminatory practices.
Specifically, Trump cannot change laws set by Congress through an executive order, or hold companies liable for complying correctly with older rules, it said. The move to force private firms to drop DEI also raised constitutional concerns.
“They are attempting to turn bedrock civil rights laws on their head and use them to intimidate employers from maintaining not just lawful policies but policies that have really helped them run their business in a positive way,” Seema Nanda, Solicitor of Labor under former President Joe Biden and a letter signatory, told Reuters.
(Additonal reporting by Ross Kerber and Michael Pell; Editing by Nia Williams)
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