The National Science Foundation fired nearly 170 workers in a call on Tuesday morning as part of the Trump administration’s agenda to reduce the federal labor force. Workers terminated, which are said to end at 5 pm Est today, including those who are still conditioned, but workers who have previously provided the necessary one -year period to become permanent workers and permanent workers. They were considered permanent, they had finished. Employees.
Earlier this month, however, these permanent workers were suddenly said by the NSF that their one -year conditional period should be two years and were no longer safe from termination.
The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to set fire to almost all conditional employees who have not yet achieved a permanent situation and therefore receive support for civil services. But NSF workers, who believed that they were safe today, suddenly found themselves without a job.
The National Foundation for Science is an independent agency in the federal government that offers funding to universities and other institutions to support scientific and engineering research. The foundation’s funding is about a quarter of all federal support for academic institutions for research. NSF grants stopped in late January due to budget freezing, but the agency resumed funding earlier this month.
Many people on Tuesday as program managers and experts who coordinate research offers with the correct program and compliance with the most eligible referees to evaluate them and submit recommendations as program managers and experts who decide on budget They worked, they worked.
“It is difficult to imagine successfully with automatic algorithms,” said one of the firing program manager. “Given that fewer program officers to supervise the evaluation process, over -worry is that identifying and supporting transformational but unconventional projects that otherwise can be a change in scientific progress in the United States. , Becomes harder. “
All the sources that spoke with wired demanded anonymity for fear of punishment.
Sources say 168 workers received email at 9:02 am and demanded their presence in a magnifying call this morning to “meet with conditional NSF employees”. However, many workers did not receive zoom transplants and lost the start of the call. At the meeting, they were told that access to their network would be closed at 1pm and they should wipe their desks by 5pm, though workers were told to accommodate things that Unable to clean them, they were made until 5pm.
The end of the morning also includes all permanent employees who were named “will” workers. One worker terminated Wired says they were a permanent federal employee working part -time, with an annual contract that was renewed in September.
NSF management told the workers at the meeting that the decision to end the will of the will was taken from the NSF alone, not by the government. In response to the question of whether employees have ended in the will only for the conditional workers, the NSF management responded that the decision is “somewhat because of fairness, but that’s not all.”
