IRS ends union contract

The Internal Revenue Service has terminated its collective bargaining agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union, the labor union representing most IRS and Treasury Department employees, following up on an executive order issued last year by President Trump.

In addition to the contract for IRS employees, the administration also terminated the contract for employees of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, another part of the Treasury Department that centralizes accounting, collections and payments for the federal government. Trump signed an executive order last March that ended collective bargaining rights at over 20 federal agencies and departments, spurring a string of lawsuits. It has already taken effect at a number of agencies, but was on hold at the Treasury Department until an appeals court lifted a lower court's injunction last Thursday.

"In compliance with the president's Executive Order 14251, "Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs," and subsequent guidance from the Office of Personnel Management, the IRS has now terminated its collective bargaining agreement," said the IRS in a statement.

However, the union is vowing to continue to fight the termination of its contract.

"Today, the IRS purported to terminate its collective bargaining agreement with NTEU based on an unlawful executive order stripping collective bargaining rights from two-thirds of the federal workforce," said NTEU president Doreen Greenwald in a statement last Friday. "The IRS cannot unilaterally end its CBA with NTEU. The federal sector labor statute requires the IRS to have a CBA with the exclusive representative of its bargaining unit employees. NTEU's litigation over the executive order continues. A federal district court ruled that the order is likely unlawful and preliminarily enjoined its implementation. While that preliminary injunction was stayed pending appeal, it was not vacated — and whether it will be put into effect again remains a live issue. NTEU expects the IRS to continue honoring the legally negotiated collective bargaining agreement. This is the system that Congress designed and that NTEU is fighting in the courts to preserve."

The move could potentially lower morale even further at the IRS, where layoffs last year eliminated an estimated 27% of the workforce. To help fill the ranks, the IRS has reportedly been reassigning many of its information technology employees to provide customer service this tax season and requiring them to undergo mandatory training in the tax laws.

The top Democrat on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee blasted the move to cancel the collective bargaining agreement. 

"The Trump administration has been clear: They see no dignity in work and have no issue violating the law," said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Massachusetts, in a statement last Friday. "Congress designed the system and the Trump administration cannot take away the hard-fought rights of IRS employees to unionize. Introducing this chaos during the middle of filing season will create even more headaches for taxpayers and serves as yet another handout to tax cheats. ... IRS CEO [Frank] Bisignano sure has a lot to answer to next week before the Committee where Ways and Means Democrats will demand robust answers."