Feb 25, 2025

Office Of Civil Rights Abolished; Employees Fired

    The Office of Civil Rights at Social Security has been abolished. The employees of that office have been placed on Administrative Leave for 30 days before being fired. 

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was shocked when an email was sent out Friday advising of the resources available on the OCREO intranet site. Wondered if something was coming, because otherwise it was just asking for a target.

Anonymous said...

I guess we know something that'll be on Dudek's accomplishments email next week.

Anonymous said...

Leland Dudek - what a loser

Anonymous said...

Because a lot of people don't seem to get what any of the abolished SSA components do, here are some things the OCREO was responsible for:

Reviewing and acting on complaints of discrimination by SSA personnel against the public or as to the agency's own workforce.

Publishing guidance for businesses (as well as SSA itself) as to what are reasonable accommodations and disability services.

Anonymous said...

Lee Dudek is angling for a permanent job in the Trump administration.

The Social Security Administration today announced the closing of a component within the agency, the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity. Employees in this office will be put on administrative leave effective today.

“Our focus is supporting President Trump’s priorities, which include streamlining functions and prioritizing essential work,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “Terminating the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, and reassigning statutory responsibilities performed by this office, advances the President’s goal to make all of government more efficient in serving the American public.”

Anonymous said...

how can they do this without a formal RIF? what is the rationale?

Anonymous said...

Wondering that myself.

Anonymous said...

The rationale is retribution.

Anonymous said...

Anyone from CREO willing to speak out and say exactly what happened? Anyone being re-assigned? Everyone being terminated? How did they allow this to happen without a formal RIF?

Anonymous said...

Why are they not reassigning the people to other tasks?

Anonymous said...

Curious to know if Big Lee has the guts to inform these people in person. I am guessing no.

Anonymous said...

That is one way to get rid of reasonable accommodations, do away with the dept that approves them.

Anonymous said...

In case you missed it, laws and rules only work for those enforcing them. They are open to interpretation and guess who gets to interpret. Where is AFGE in all this?

Anonymous said...

Apparently Lee listed “fired 14 people” as one of his accomplishments that he sent to Musk.

Anonymous said...

AFGE reps those in BU. HR specialists not in BU to rep as far as I’ve seen. This will impact EEO claims but the manner and grounds to contest remain to be seen.

Anonymous said...

Wow! So impressed with Dudek. Getting rid of worthless components and reworking people into value-adding work. Congrats Commish, you’re doing some spectacular work!

Anonymous said...

Time for SSA employees to walk off the job. Or at minimum stage a slowdown. They can’t fire us all.

Anonymous said...

SSA doesn't really need an office of Civil Rights. Racism and sexism are not the problem they were 50 years ago, and the offices which dealt with them were not meant to be permanent.

Unfortunately, in recent years we have seen unrealistic claims of non-existent discrimination, which all too often were successful due to DEI policies at SSA.

That being said, the people in the Civil Rights area at SSA should be given the opportunity to transfer elsewhere within the agency. They should not be fired.

Anonymous said...

Yes - while also bragging that he brought on 9 DOGE bros. Anyone know who they are other than Elez, Killian, Rajpal, Shaotran, and Bobba?

Anonymous said...

On a 3pm EST call this afternoon the ACOSS told the DCs/execs that he wanted a plan to cut 50% of ALL staff, including frontline staff, to him by tomorrow afternoon. If anyone is retirement eligible, you should go and maybe spare some of your younger colleagues who are not eligible for even VERA from being fired. “Not touching Social Security” is not the reality of this administration. Looking for government to fail and be replaced by private industry appears to be the goal.

Anonymous said...

@5:39, you are correct that the CREO employees are NBU, but AFGE and the other unions should still have a concern. CREO handles the reasonable accommodation and discrimination claims filed by the BUE.

Anonymous said...

@4:45

Getting rid of the department that provides guidance on what constitutes reasonable accommodations doesn't remove the ADA's private cause of action. This is going to result in a whole bunch more lawsuits, not less.

Anonymous said...

Can someone verify is this is true about 50% cuts? This is big if true since they said we were too essential to take the fork offer.

Anonymous said...

Surely this isn’t true.

Anonymous said...

Well that should be an easy call for Leland. Isn't SSA like 50% black? Boom, done. That would further endear him with Elon & co. - which I think is the primary motivation.

Anonymous said...

I can’t see them cutting 50% of frontline staff and thinking the public won’t raise hell. That would ensure the end of the MAGA movement, which I welcome.

Anonymous said...

Don't threaten them with a good time

Anonymous said...

Are you joking? Racism is hipper now than it’s been since the early 1960s as far as I can tell. Your whiteness and maleness are showing super clear right now.

Anonymous said...

That would be utter madness against every citizen that has paid taxes. They would be able to get no service whatsoever as the place would collapse from within. Frontline were excluded from all this mess up until now.