The National Science Foundation dismissed nearly 170 workers in a Zoom Call Tuesday morning as part of the Trump administration’s agenda to reduce the federal workforce. The licensed workers, who have been informed that their employment would end at 5 p.m. today, included those who are still in probation, but also workers who had already completed the probationary period required to become permanent workers and workers will which were considered permanent employees.
Earlier this month, however, these permanent workers were suddenly informed by NSF that their one-year probation period should have been two years and that they were no longer safe from termination.
The Trump administration ordered federal agencies in Fire almost all Probatory employees which had not yet acquired permanent status, thus receiving the protections of the public service. But NSF workers who thought they were safe suddenly found themselves unemployed today.
The National Science Foundation is an independent agency in the federal government which grants grants to universities and other organizations in support of scientific research and in engineering. Foundation subsidies represent approximately a quarter of all federal support for university research establishments. NSF subsidies were interrupted at the end of January due to a freezing freeze, but the agency resumed the issuance of subsidies Following a court order at the start of this month.
Many people end on Tuesday as program managers and experts who make decisions concerning financing by aligning research proposals on the right program and by corresponding these proposals to the most qualified examiners to assess and make recommendations.
“It is difficult to imagine that this is successfully accomplished with automated algorithms,” said Wired, a licensed program director. “With fewer program agents to manage the evaluation process, the overwhelming concern is that it will become more difficult to identify and support transformative but unconventional projects which could otherwise change game changers in terms of scientific progress in the United States. “
All the sources that spoke with Wired asked for anonymity for fear of remuneration.
Sources say that 168 workers received an email at 9:02 a.m. this morning by asking for their presence during a zoom call at 10 am for a “meeting with NSF employees”. Many workers, however, have not received the zoom link and missed the start of the call. During the meeting, they were told that their access to the network would be excluded at 1 p.m. and that they had until 5 p.m. to eliminate their office, although workers have been informed that housing would be done to get things that they were unable to clean at 5 p.m.
The action of dismissal this morning also included all the permanent employees who were appointed as workers “at will”. A licensed worker told Wired that they were a permanent federal employee working part -time, with an annual contract which was renewed in September.
The decision to terminate the employees of the will came from the NSF alone, not from the administration, workers told the management of the NSF at the meeting. When asked if the employees at will have just been arrested by probationary workers, the management of the NSF replied that the decision was “partly due to equity, but it is not not everything ”.
