IRS & Bureau of Fiscal Service Terminate NTEU Union Contracts

On February 27, 2026, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told employees it had terminated its collective bargaining agreement with the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents roughly two-thirds of the agency. In an email obtained by Federal News Network, Chief Human Capital Officer Alex Kweskin wrote that the agency had terminated the 2022 National Agreement and its 2025 addendum, canceled all pending negotiations, and “will implement any changes to conditions of employment without bargaining,” citing Executive Order 14,251 and Office of Personnel Management guidance; the Bureau of the Fiscal Service terminated its NTEU contract the same week. Government Executive reported the moves appeared to test at least the spirit of court orders in NTEU's challenge to the executive order. In late March 2026, the IRS withdrew from all pending NTEU grievance proceedings, telling arbitrator Christopher Shulman he was “no longer authorized” to adjudicate them. One of these proceedings included an earlier NTEU grievance against the IRS's termination of telework and remote-work agreements for employees within 50 miles of an office. Proceeding in absentia, Shulman ruled on July 17, 2026 that the IRS unlawfully repudiated the contract and committed an unfair labor practice, and ordered 2024-era telework and remote-work agreements restored for tens of thousands of employees (reasoning that a grievance filed during the contract's term survives the contract's termination).