IRS cancels furlough day for employees

{mosads}IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel made the announcement in an email.

“The IRS will be open for taxpayers that day as scheduled, and all employees will be paid for that day. This step follows a lot of hard work across the Service to cut costs. I realize that this announcement comes on very short notice. Therefore, unscheduled leave will be permitted that day, and I am emphasizing to all managers that if their employees want to take leave on July 22, they should be allowed to do so,” Werfel said. 

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) hailed the decision to cancel the July furlough and said it would press the agency to stop a fifth planned day in August. 

“While I am concerned that this announcement comes so close to the planned furlough day, it is a positive development arising from our continuing discussions with the agency on furloughs,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley. “We have been encouraging the agency, and working with it, in an effort to find savings sufficient to allow it to cancel employee furloughs.”

Werfel had told IRS staffers last week that the agency would be able to cancel both of the remaining furlough days if he was able to cancel bonuses for staff.

The IRS had come under fire for a scheduled release of $70 million in bonuses, something Werfel said he was addressing with NTEU. The union says the IRS is legally bound to pay out those bonuses.

In his Tuesday statement, Werfel merely said that the agency had maneuvered its budget well enough to cancel the July 22 furlough day without commenting on the status of the bonuses.

–Bernie Becker contributed to this report.