Trump Escalates His War on D.E.I.

ImageCrackdown President Trump made clear for months that he would take aim at diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives when he took office.But the ferocity with which he has done so — both within the federal government and, soon, in the corporate sector — has set off alarm bells in boardrooms.“We have heard from many, many clients,” James A.

Paretti Jr., a shareholder at the law firm Littler Mendelson who specializes in workplace issues, told DealBook’s Sarah Kessler about the reaction to the executive order.The latest in Trump’s attacks on D.E.I.: Federal workers face “adverse consequences” if they don’t report colleagues who defy orders to purge their agencies of such efforts, The Times reports.(One employee said it felt like being recruited to the Gestapo.)Trump also revoked an executive order that prevented private government contractors from using discriminatory hiring and employment practices, and he instructed the agency overseeing them to stop “allowing or encouraging” efforts “to engage in work force balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion or national origin.”Companies are worried.

Trump’s executive order instructs government agencies to look at private-sector D.E.I.efforts and identify “up to nine” potential civil compliance investigations of corporations, nonprofits and more.Among the most legally vulnerable programs, civil rights lawyers say, are those that give out employment benefits like jobs or promotions to specific groups on the basis of their race.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....