IRS, Union at Impasse on RIFs

THE DAILY FED

IRS, Union at Impasse on RIFs

The IRS plan to ask the Federal Service Impasses Panel to step in comes less than a month after the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) filed a lawsuit to prevent the IRS from sending notices in January to more than 1,600 employees warning them they would be at risk to be laid off. NTEU wants the notification delayed until after March 1, when the IRS is required to send Congress a report justifying its RIFs. NTEU contended that it was not fully included in the decision-making process.

IRS officials say the union has been involved since the agency began planning for RIFs in November 1995.

The arbitration panel can impose a resolution if the agency and the union do not reach a voluntary settlement.

Though several labor-management partnerships in the federal government are progressing smoothly, the difficulties the IRS and the NTEU have run into show that agencies and unions have at times been forced to resort to traditional mediation processes. The Clinton Administration has trumpeted its partnership successes over the past four years.

"Partnership is the 'bridge' this administration has proffered to improve the delivery of services to the American public and cut the cost of government," National Partnership Council chairman and Office of Personnel Management director James B. King said earlier this month. "Word of early partnership successes based on logic and shared vision between labor and management is spreading throughout government, and we expect the momentum to carry more and more organizations into the fold."