IRS workers only had to show up to work once a week in person, before Trump took over
Employees at the Internal Revenue Service only had to show up to work in person twice every biweekly pay period before President Trump took over and canned federal telework policies, The Post has learned.
Under the IRS’ most recent collective bargaining agreement brokered between the agency and its union last October, employees were eligible to telework up to eight days per biweekly pay period.
IRS officials had raised concerns that the generous telework policy would “impede on the agency’s ability to serve its client, the IRS, and taxpayers” and adversely impact worker performance. They cited their experiences during the pandemic, when remote work became widespread.
They also fretted that the cushy policy flouted rules from the Treasury Department, which oversees the tax-collecting agency, requiring it to have at least 40% of its workforce show up in person.
However, an arbitrator brushed those concerns aside and rejected the IRS’ push for a six-day telework cap per pay period.
“To hold telework solely responsible for such issues is inappropriate,” the arbitrator in union negotiations with the IRS concluded. “Given the need for supervisors to assess the portability of an individual employee’s work, I am not convinced there should be an arbitrary six-day cap.”
That deal between the IRS and its union, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), was negotiated using taxpayer funding, a pet peeve of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose office unearthed the cushy telework arrangement.
It is not immediately clear how many taxpayer dollars were used to fund the IRS union negotiations. Back in 2019, the last time data were fully available, agencies across the federal bureaucracy spent $160 million on taxpayer-funded union time.
“While the American people are working hard, the tax collectors are trying to hardly work,” Ernst, head of the Senate DOGE Caucus, quipped to The Post about the IRS telework policy.
“It is infuriating that our tax dollars are footing the bill for union bosses to negotiate for IRS bureaucrats to get cushy telework agreements and bloated bonus structures.”
The NTEU had battled to essentially guarantee generous bonuses to IRS workers who were rated as “outstanding” and “exceed fully successful.”
The arbitrator, however, shot that union proposal down in favor of a more limited bonus regime that would be determined by individual units.
The Post reached out to the IRS and NTEU for comment.
During his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order directing all agencies and departments to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements” and require workers to return to the office on a full-time basis.
This included limited exemptions that heads of departments deemed necessary.
Last December, a bombshell report from Ernst’s office found that a measly 6% of the federal workforce showed up “in-person on a full-time basis.”
Almost one-third of federal workers were remote on a full-time basis at the time, marking a steep decline from the pre-pandemic era in which only 3% teleworked daily, according to the report.
Ernst has clashed with the IRS repeatedly, including over watchdog findings last July that current and former workers owed $46 million to Uncle Sam in unpaid taxes.
“This adds insult to injury to the fact that the agency is filled with tax cheats,” the Hawkeye State senator added, referring to the collective bargaining deal. “I have a laundry list of reforms to fix America’s least favorite government agency.”
Roughly 5% of IRS employees and contractors weren’t fully caught up on their obligations, according to the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General.
Earlier this week, ahead of Tax Day, Ernst rolled out legislation demanding that the IRS take steps to ensure that all of its employees are fully caught up on their taxes.
