US Science Agency sparks controversy with worker status change

UPDATED: Feb 21, 2025 22:08 IST

Science Foundation administrators reclassified hundreds of employees from permanent to probationary status in violation of labor contracts, according to a U.S. lawmaker and agency employee.

The agency made the change after President Donald Trump took office on January 20 with a sweeping directive aimed at reducing the federal workforce, they said. On that day, the Office of Personnel Management required federal agencies to submit a list of employees who were on probation.

U.S. Representative Don Beyer said that in response to the OPM directive, NSF unilaterally stripped permanent status from both union and non-union workers, including executives, without notification. A form was placed in their personnel files.

An NSF employee with knowledge of the process could confirm only that a "significant number" of employees were switched from permanent to on probation. The source spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

"I write to express deep concern and outrage over the Science Foundation's recent firing of NSF employees and the reclassification of hundreds of employees' employment status from permanent to a probationary status," Beyer, a Democrat, wrote Thursday in a letter to NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan.

The reclassification exposes these employees to termination without due process, said Beyer, a Democrat who represents the northern Virginia district where NSF is headquartered.

The NSF on Tuesday fired 170 people, 86 of whom were classified as probationary and 84 as experts, whose appointments are defined as one year or less, spokesperson Mike England said on Friday. The firings constituted nearly 10% of the agency's 1,715 workforce, he said.

England told Reuters NSF had received the letter and is working on a response.

The Science Foundation is a federal agency that supports science and engineering across the country, on topics from supercomputers to battling pandemics, its website says. It receives 40,000 proposals a year and funds about 11,000.

"It is absurd to mindlessly decimate the workforce that has led the world in science over the past 75 years, and to willingly give up excellent scientists and talent," Beyer wrote.

He asked the NSF to reinstate terminated employees and rescind unlawful reclassification of permanent employees.