Originally published IRS rescinds layoffs at civil rights office, an early target of workforce cuts on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/08/irs-rescinds-layoffs-at-civil-rights-office-an-early-target-of-workforce-cuts/ at Federal News Network
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The IRS is rescinding layoffs at its civil rights office, an early target in its plans to slash its total headcount.
IRS Commissioner Billy Long, in a memo obtained by Federal News Network, told employees in the Office of Civil Rights and Compliance that the agency is “reversing” reduction-in-force notices they received in April.
“This memorandum serves as cancellation of your prior RIF notice of separation,” Long wrote in the Aug. 1 memo. “It supersedes any previous notices you may have received … I look forward to your continued employment with the Internal Revenue Service.”
The civil rights office, formerly known as the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, was the first IRS office to receive RIF notices.
The Office of Civil Rights and Compliance had about 176 employees at the start of this year, but nearly 80% of its staff received RIF notices in April.
About 80 employees were supposed to be separated from the agency by June 3. A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked many agencies from proceeding with RIFs. But the Supreme Court allowed those RIF plans to proceed last month.
The IRS, however, kept its RIF plans on hold weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Our RIFs were frozen and we were past the date of being RIF’d. No one knew what was going to happen next, so we’ve been waiting these couple of weeks to find out,” one IRS employee told Federal News Network.
About half of the employees who received RIF notices applied for the deferred resignation program.
Long’s memo states employees who accepted a voluntary separation incentive — including a deferred resignation, voluntary early retirement or voluntary incentive payments worth up to $25,000 — will not have their RIF notices rescinded.
The National Treasury Employees Union filed a national grievance on May 22, challenging the IRS’ refusal to accept employees’ requests to withdraw their resignations. The union later amended its grievance to include employees seeking to withdraw their signed DRP agreements and to withdraw their applications for VERA or VSIP.
NTEU expects to receive a response from the IRS by Aug. 7.
The IRS under the Trump administration has lost more than 25% of its workforce through a combination of layoffs and voluntary separation incentives. Earlier this week, the agency posted — and then canceled — 4,500 customer service representative positions on USAJobs.
The IRS, as part of its fiscal 2026 budget request, said it would have to hire 11,000 call center representatives to “maintain” its current level of phone service. Without those hires, the agency warned it would only be able to answer about 16% of phone calls during next year’s filing season.
“Funding this investment below the requested level will significantly reduce telephone [level of service] and impair taxpayer services,” the IRS wrote.
The agency is asking for $852 million to make these hires and to roll out automation tools to further assist customers. IRS receives about 100 million calls each year.
The Professional Managers Association, which represents IRS managers and supervisors, said some of its members have decided to “voluntarily downgrade” to non-management roles, because the pay “does not justify the added stress and work required by management positions.”
“In the association’s history, this is the most dire leadership environment the IRS has experienced, with very few IRS employees eager and interested in becoming IRS managers,” PMA Executive Director Kelly Reyes wrote in a recent letter to an IRS advisory committee.
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Originally published IRS rescinds layoffs at civil rights office, an early target of workforce cuts on by https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/08/irs-rescinds-layoffs-at-civil-rights-office-an-early-target-of-workforce-cuts/ at Federal News Network
Originally published Federal News Network
