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Washington, D.C. — For the third time this year, an arbitrator has ruled the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) acted illegally in approaching negotiations with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) for a new term labor contract. In this instance, the agency tried to engage in improper piece-meal bargaining—taking a subject covered by the national agreement and negotiating it outside the confines of bargaining for a term contract.

“This decision, in the third of three national grievances NTEU filed against IRS actions, is further evidence that the IRS is traveling the wrong road,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “It is well past time for this agency to set aside its illegal conduct and work with NTEU to establish fair and reasonable ground rules for bargaining an agreement that addresses the needs both of employees and the agency.”

The latest decision rules that IRS management engaged in illegal “bad faith” bargaining by demanding that NTEU agree to immediately bargain changes to the alternative work schedules (AWS) program rather than wait until the parties renegotiate the master contract. Bargaining over the rest of the contract has been delayed for over two years due to what arbitrators have found to be repeated violations of the law by IRS management.

“Management refuses to move the rest of bargaining along, but now demands the union do it this favor to quickly change one part of the contract that management wants changed. That is not only illegal, but irrational,” said Kelley.

The decision orders the IRS to stop demanding NTEU bargain over that single issue apart from everything else, it refrain from making any changes to local AWS agreements and that it restore the status quo where changes have been made.

In a July decision dealing with efforts to reach mutually-acceptable ground rules—the process by which contract negotiations are conducted—the same arbitrator said the “totality of (IRS) conduct establishes bad faith bargaining.”

NTEU has taken the unusual step of asking the FLRA to block the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) from imposing a bargaining procedure on the parties. The FSIP has been strongly pro-management under this administration.

Meanwhile, a second arbitrator, in a September decision, said that agency management acted illegally when, in June 2006, it unilaterally terminated several provisions in the national labor agreement between the parties, along with all national and local partnership agreements. That arbitrator ordered these matters returned to their previous status.

“This dispute has been going on for a considerable period of time,” President Kelley said. “The IRS needs to reverse its course and find a way to deal reasonably and legally with NTEU on negotiating a new contract.”

In the most recent decision, the arbitrator also ruled that the IRS could address the issue of incentive awards outside of national negotiations because the provisions covering this matter are not part of the national agreement. Kelley said NTEU will file exceptions with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to the arbitrator’s decision on this point.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.