IRS union pushes back on IT shakeup as workers begin detail to taxpayer services 

Rather than working on IT or cybersecurity operations, many federal technology workers at the Internal Revenue Service showed up for a new task this week: taxpayer services. 

Training for the 120-day “involuntary detail” to taxpayer services began Monday for what is believed to be hundreds of IRS IT workers. Several impacted workers told FedScoop they have little to no experience with taxes, while questions about their long-term future at the agency remain unanswered. 

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents some but not all agency workers, filed a national grievance last week, requesting that the agency release the impacted employees from the detail, according to copies of the notice obtained by FedScoop. NTEU later confirmed the filing, but declined to comment further. 

According to NTEU, some of those involuntary detailees were required to change their work schedules and attend mandatory trainings, regardless of their current start and stop times and pre-approved alternative work schedules. In doing so, the union argued that the IRS failed to follow solicitation procedures and engaged in unfair labor practices. 

The grievance was backdated Feb. 19, about a week after IRS employees from the agency’s IT and human capital office received email notices that they were involuntarily assigned to a 120-day detail as either a customer service representative or tax examiner. The detail went into effect Monday, with the 13-week training period now underway. 

“Our question is, why are a bunch of IT people being transitioned forcefully over to taxpayer stuff that we don’t know anything about?” one of the impacted IT workers told FedScoop. “We keep asking questions and any time we ask a question, they just either say, ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘we’ll get that answered for you,’ and they never do.” 

Detailed employees were told the positions will not require direct engagement with taxpayers or answering phones, but will assist with the backlog of millions of filings. It is estimated 27% of the IRS workforce was lost over the past year amid the Trump administration’s push to reduce the size of the federal government, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate. 

The worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said those conducting the training maintain they will not answer phones, but are still reviewing phone etiquette with them. 

Calling it a “weird situation,” the worker said “we don’t even really know what to believe because they keep saying things or leaving our information or just straight up not telling us stuff.” 

This worker further pointed out that the training period is expected to take about 13 weeks — or 91 days — of the 120-day detail, leaving the workers with less than 30 days to clear the backlog. IRS previously said that the details could be extended beyond the four-month period. 

“They keep saying it’s temporary, but the timeline isn’t adding up,” the worker said. When asked whether they believe these roles will become permanent, the employee said “the writing is on the wall.” 

The worker was one of about 1,000 employees at the IRS who were moved from IT to the Office of the Chief Operations Officer last December. Multiple employees told FedScoop that a period of “limbo” followed, during which they did very little work while waiting for the next assignment. 

Management “basically took away” all of their IT privileges, leaving employees “sitting in this random team for weeks with no guidance,” the worker said. “We have no [tasks], no nothing … literally just sitting there.” 

Another IRS IT employee echoed this, saying the teams had “not been doing anything” from December until this week, when training started. That employee, also speaking anonymously, said some volunteered to clear the tens of thousands of retirement and reasonable accommodation backlogs during this time, but most did not. 

Weeks later, on Jan. 20, IRS CEO Frank Bisignano issued a memo to staff removing the COO to create the new Office of Chief Internal Consulting (CIC), writing that the IRS is focused on a “digital-first taxpayer experience.” Joe Ziegler, the named head of the CIC, halted all volunteer work and was the one who eventually notified impacted employees of their temporary reassignment. 

“It’s really hard. I actually liked my job. I enjoyed being busy, I enjoyed all the work that I was doing,” the second employee said, adding they thought it was “helpful” to be doing so much work while in IT. “They won’t get rid of me because I am valuable to the team, right? But they did get rid of me.”

The employee further claimed they were told IT was “done” for the group detailed to taxpayer services. 

The IRS maintains that the employees are still being paid the same as if they were still in IT, despite taking on a role multiple GS grades below them. Some employees are concerned that this is a preamble to eventual removal from the agency. 

“My theory is that they still want to fire people, but there’s too many court cases going on right now,” the first employee said. Now, “they have to do it kind of the right way now.” 

The IRS has lost an estimated 27% of its total workforce over the past year as part of the Trump administration’s workforce reduction efforts. 

When reached for comment, the IRS said the agency is “putting taxpayers first by reassigning employees to help where it’s needed as the agency processes tax returns during the 2026 filing season, a practice that is routinely done each filing season.”