IRS layoffs include Philadelphia workers

A group of Internal Revenue Service workers in Philadelphia were among those laid off Thursday within the federal agency, which already struggles to answer taxpayer calls in a timely manner, according to a union representative.

Roughly 400 probationary employees at the 30th and Market Streets IRS location were expected to receive their terminations Thursday, if they had not already, said Alex Jay Berman, executive vice president of National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 71, which represents over 3,600 IRS employees at that location.

Some 6,000 IRS layoffs were expected to start Thursday, according to the New York Times. It’s a continuation of layoffs across the federal government that have focused on probational employees, who generally have been in their current roles for less than a year.

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The Trump administration has vowed to shrink the size of federal agencies and has already laid off thousands of workers.

Thomas Parise, president of another union chapter that represents Philadelphia IRS workers, said roughly 100 employees in his chapter were hired to their current positions in the last year.

As of midday Thursday, Parise knew of seven who had received termination notices, and was still working to get a sense of how many in his chapter were laid off. At least one other IRS employee in King of Prussia had been laid off on Thursday, he said.

While the full impact of the federal layoffs on Philadelphia’s workforce is still unclear, they have included workers at the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Independence National Historical Park, The Inquirer has reported.

IRS employees are sometimes called on to work the phone lines for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said Berman.

“We have the phone lines, we have the infrastructure, and we have the people who can do those claim calls, so they always call on us,” he said. ”What happens when the next big hurricane comes and FEMA doesn’t have the staffing to get the people the relief they need?”

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Those laid off Thursday worked in offices at 30th and Market Streets and 600 Arch St. in Philadelphia.

“To see them excited to carry on government service, and then for them to be treated in this fashion, to be disrespected and treated unfairly, it’s really gut-wrenching,” Parise said.

His local, National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 22, represents Eastern Pennsylvania IRS employees including attorneys, revenue agents who conduct audits, and revenue officers. He represents some 500 workers at 11 different posts throughout the region, and 175 of them are employed in Philadelphia.

Amid these layoffs, morale is very low among his members, he noted.

“They don’t know what’s coming because of the lack of communication,” he said. “There’s a lot of worry in regards to what’s going to happen.”