IRS chief blasted for employee treatment after ending union contract

The top Democrat on Congress's tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, ranking member Rep. Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, demanded answers from Internal Revenue Service CEO Frank Bisignano about the way IRS employees have been treated since the IRS unilaterally moved to end their collective bargaining agreement. 

In March, the IRS terminated its agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents most IRS and Treasury Department employees, in response to an executive order issued last year by President Trump. 

Neal pointed to Bisignano's testimony in March to the Ways and Means Committee about the Trump administration's move to end the agreement between the IRS and the NTEU. Bisignano testified that IRS employees "are losing nothing" without the collective bargaining agreement. But Neal said recent administrative actions against IRS employees contradict Bisignano's testimony, including canceled telework, forced relocations, delayed Family and Medical Leave Act requests, changes to performance evaluations, and unfair overtime allocations.

"For nearly 90 years (since 1938), the NTEU, or its predecessor, has protected the rights of hundreds of thousands of federal employees to negotiate, take legal action, and advocate for themselves," Neal wrote in a letter Friday. "I continue to stand by my statement that the Trump Administration cannot unilaterally take away the hard-fought rights of IRS employees to unionize. You testified that 'their benefits is under statute' and that 'their time off is under statute.' However, I understand that the actions taken since termination of the agreement contradict this testimony."

Neal demanded the Administration provide written answers outlining the legal basis of their actions, and what, if any, reasonable accommodations they are making to impacted employees whose rights they've trampled on.

"These actions raise serious concerns about your testimony and this Administration's attempt to unlawfully terminate the collective bargaining agreement with NTEU by trampling on the rights of unionized employees," Neal wrote.

The NTEU backed up Neal's claims. "Ranking Member Neal's letter underscores what NTEU members at the IRS are experiencing firsthand: ignoring the collective bargaining agreement has real consequences," said NTEU national president Doreen Greenwald in a statement. "Employees are facing unilateral changes to telework, relocations, leave, overtime and performance evaluations. NTEU members applaud Ranking Member Neal for standing up for IRS employees, and we will continue fighting to defend our workplace rights and hold those who violate them accountable."