It was unclear how many, if any, Dayton employees were impacted. The Dayton VA Medical Center, located on a campus between West Third Street and U.S. 35, has 2,355 full-time employees.
It was the second round of job cuts the national VA had announced in less than two weeks. On Feb. 13, the department said it had dismissed more than 1,000 employees.
Representatives of the Dayton VA have not answered questions about whether any local employees lost jobs in the earlier round of cuts. A question about the local impact of these newest cuts was sent to a Dayton-based spokeswoman of the local medical center Tuesday.
A new statement from the national VA released Monday evening identified as “mission-critical” positions such as Veterans Crisis Line responders, among other roles.
“VA positions considered non-mission critical include DEI-related positions, among other roles,” the department said.
“DEI” is a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion job positions, which the administration of President Donald Trump has sought to eliminate.
Late last week, U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson temporarily blocked Trump’s anti-DEI directives, claiming the moves could violate the First Amendment, according to national reports.
The VA said the latest personnel moves will save the department more than $83 million a year.
“VA will redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries,” the department said.
There are currently nearly 40,000 VA probationary employees nationwide, most of whom were exempt from the cuts because they serve in “mission-critical positions,” the VA said.
The department said it also continues to hire for more than 300,000 mission-critical positions that are exempt from the federal hiring freeze.
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