Trump Administration Orders IRS Workers Back To Office, Ignoring Union Contract

Treasury employees are "furious" about a new return-to-office mandate that their union says clearly violates the collective bargaining agreement.

The Trump administration has ordered employees who work remotely for the Internal Revenue Service to return to office this month, signaling it intends to ignore telework protections in the agency’s union contract.

The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, issued a memo Friday saying it would “cancel” all regular telework agreements on March 8 for people who live within 50 miles of an office. They would be expected to report to work on March 10.

Many Treasury workers have remote-work protections in their collective-bargaining agreement. But the Treasury directive will require “100%” in-person work, “including members of a bargaining unit.”

In a subsequent phase of the plan, workers who live more than 50 miles from an office would be assigned to one, suggesting they would be required to commute long distances or move to keep their jobs.

There would only be “limited exceptions” to the plan, such as for military spouses, according to the memo.