Seven employees at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Boston office have been placed on paid administrative leave because of their work on environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, according to union officials.

The staffers were placed on leave at a hastily-arranged meeting late Thursday afternoon, according to Lilly Simmons, acting president of AFGE Local 3428, which represents about 500 EPA employees in New England.

“The emails that people received told them they had no access to the building. They’d have no access to their computers. They’d have no access to their personal information on government systems,” she said. She added that the administrative leave had no set end date, leaving employees “very stressed out.”

The Boston staffers are part of a nationwide sweep of EPA offices that put 168 workers on administrative leave on Thursday. It follows President Trump’s executive actions calling for an end to equity, diversity and environmental justice programs.

EPA did not confirm the number of Boston staffers put on leave.

Environmental justice programs seek to address the uneven burden of pollution and climate change borne by many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. They were a priority under the Biden administration, but Trump has declared them wasteful and discriminatory.

In a memo to EPA employees, agency spokesperson Molly Vaseliou wrote “EPA is working to diligently implement President Trump’s executive orders, including the ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,’ as well as subsequent associated implementation memos. President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to do just this.”

Former EPA Regional Administrator David Cash said dismantling environmental justice programs would adversely affect communities already overburdened by pollution.

“This administration doesn’t have an interest in protecting those who need the most protection,” Cash said.  ”This is just another demonstration of them rolling back protections that that will impact people all over this country.”

Cash, who served as New England’s regional administrator for about three years, described the Trump administration’s rapid and sweeping efforts to reduce agency personnel as “quite irregular.”

“There are always changes during administrative transitions, there’s no question about that,” he said. “But every administration, regardless of whether they were Democratic or Republican, always went through the process in a way that comported with the laws, that comported with contracts. And we’re not seeing that at all.”

Simmons, from AFGE Local 3428, said the union is evaluating ways to challenge the orders. Unions representing federal workers have already filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s buyout offer to federal employees. A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for Monday.