About 30,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service
not properly paid under the 2003 national awards program
are to share in a $5 million settlement negotiated by
the National Treasury Employees Union.
An arbitrator found in favor of the union’s grievance
last December, deciding the agency had underpaid recipients
in the under-funded awards program. IRS agreed to pay the
employees within two months, according to NTEU.
It said the settlement means that any future supplemental
awards payments will be made from fiscal year funds in
which the award was paid, rather than by reducing funding
levels for subsequent years.
At the hearing, NTEU presented a bargaining history of
the program as well as IRS data showing the amount
actually paid out to employees fell short of what was
called for under the program.
“The arbitration decision underscores the importance of
fully funding any kind of pay-for-performance system,”
said the union’s president Colleen Kelley.
