Dec 13 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will remove about 25,000 open and unfilled positions, a spokesperson said, adding that they were “COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary.”
“No VA employees are being removed, and this will have zero impact on Veteran care,” department spokesperson Pete Kasperowicz said.
“All of these positions are unfilled and most have not been filled for more than a year,” Kasperowicz said.
The Washington Post, citing an internal memo, reported on Saturday that the department plans to abruptly eliminate as many as 35,000 health care positions this month, mostly unfilled jobs including doctors, nurses and support staff.
Kasperowicz called the Washington Post report “misleading.”
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan and Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexander Smith)
