NSF Begins Reinstating Some Probationary Employees After Mass Layoffs

The National Science Foundation has begun reinstating some employees who were laid off en masse last week, according to a union representative. However, the agency is bracing for further workforce reductions: employees who took the “fork in the road” deal will leave their positions on Monday and the White House has mandated plans for “large-scale” staff reductions.

NSF laid off most of its probationary employees and almost all of its intermittent experts on Feb. 18, reducing the agency’s total workforce by about 10%. NSF spokesperson Michael England said the layoffs applied to 170 employees, 86 probationary and 84 classified as intermittent experts. The layoffs came after instructions from the Trump administration for agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees, who have served in their positions for relatively short periods and have less legal protection from termination.

The re-hiring of probationary employees at NSF applies to veterans, those with military spouses, and those with disabilities, said Jesus Soriano, a program officer at NSF and president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3403, the union that represents the agency. The re-hiring began this week and could include as many as thirty people, Soriano said.

The move follows reporting that indicates Republican lawmakers have privately pushed back on cuts across agencies that impact veterans, who are given preference in the federal hiring process and have been disproportionately affected by the dismissals. (England declined to comment on the rehirings.)

Meanwhile, some employees are voluntarily leaving the agency for other jobs as a result of the layoffs and the threat of further ones, Soriano said.

“The employees are terrified. We’re talking about very dedicated public servants who just want to do good by fostering the scientific enterprise and technology development,” Soriano said. “And these are brilliant people. They have other choices. … Every day we hear about someone who left because the situation is too unstable.”

This Wednesday, the White House instructed agency heads to submit a first plan for reductions in force (RIFs) and reorganization by March 13 and a second plan by April 14. The first must identify the agency units to be targeted for initial reductions, the headcount target for reductions, and lists of all positions categorized as essential for exclusion from RIFs, among other information. The second must cover all planned reductions in positions, procedures to ensure no more than one employee is hired for every four that depart, and any proposals to relocate agency offices from the D.C. area to lower-cost parts of the country, among other information.

However, the White House has started to face legal pushback on its first moves to dramatically downsize the federal workforce. On Tuesday, a federal board overturned the layoffs of six probationary employees across six agencies, at least temporarily. Then on Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the mass firings of probationary employees were likely unlawful and ordered that the administration rescind directives that prompted the layoffs. It is not clear how the ruling will affect layoffs at NSF and other agencies.

Soriano said his union believes the NSF layoffs are illegal because the termination notices baselessly claimed the employees were poor performers.

The layoffs have affected all directorates and administrative functions at NSF, and the fork in the road resignations will further disrupt “essential functions” at the agency, Soriano said. The intermittent experts who were fired, for example, are embedded in all the teams and work with program officers to facilitate the merit review process and manage awards, he said.

“When you remove these people from the system, well, all of a sudden there’s a lot of work to be done” beyond giving out grant awards, Soriano said. “We need to manage the awards, ensure that the work is done, there’s no abuse, that the PIs receive the assistance they need. … I fear for the scientists and engineers and innovators and small businesses who are calling, and there may be nobody to answer your calls.”

Further turmoil from buyouts and reclassification

The union has heard that around 120 other NSF employees took the “fork in the road” deferred resignation deal offered by the Office of Personnel Management, though NSF leadership has not confirmed the number, Soriano said. This would reduce NSF’s workforce by almost another 10%.

The deal offered federal employees a chance to resign and keep their pay and benefits through September. About 75,000 employees across all federal agencies reportedly accepted the offer, though its legality has been questioned.

Soriano also said NSF illegally reclassified some employees’ statuses from permanent to probationary prior to the layoffs, echoing assertions by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), whose district includes the agency’s headquarters. NSF contracts specify that the probationary period for employees in new positions is one year, Soriano said. However, NSF reclassified these employees after OPM issued a directive on Jan. 20 asserting that excepted-service employees must serve two-year probationary periods, according to a letter Beyer sent to NSF last week.

Unlike probationary employees, experts are at-will employees, meaning they can be terminated by their employer at any time. Experts are also part-time and temporary, so they often have other full-time jobs simultaneously.

There were around 23 probationary employees at NSF who were not laid off on Feb. 18, Soriano said, though he does not know why they were spared. They may have fallen under one of the criteria that the union had advocated to protect, he added: having previous federal service; serving a more critical role; approaching the end of the probationary period; or inflicting “the least pain to employees,” including those who had served at NSF for years and were recently promoted and those who had their probationary periods extended from one year to two.

Employees gathered in the lobby on Feb. 18 to say goodbye to those laid off and thank them for their service. Someone placed books of all different disciplines in the lobby, each one representing an employee laid off. There was also a get-together this Thursday to honor the service of those who had taken the fork in the road deal, Soriano said.