Washington, D.C. – Executive Director Chad Hooper of the Professional Managers Association (PMA) – formed in 1981 by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Managers as a national membership association representing the interests of professional managers, management officials and non-bargaining unit employees in the federal government and within the IRS – released the following statement praising the IRS’s recent memorandum on “2022 National Agreement Consolidated ‘Pass-Through’ Provisions”:
“The 2022 National Agreement Consolidated Pass-Through Provisions (Pass-Through) memo represents a commonsense change that will improve management and eliminate inefficiencies. Previously, IRS managers would handle basic employee issues in different ways depending on if the employee was in the bargaining unit. Something as simple as processing a sick leave request was subject to varied procedures based on an employee’s bargaining unit status. This Pass-Through memo makes official all portions of the union contract that apply uniformly to all workers in the non-bargaining unit. It establishes consistent and uniform rules for employees regardless of bargaining unit status–increasing efficiency and eliminating confusion,” Hooper stated.
“PMA has long advocated for uniformity in employee treatment. The previous system required managers to learn different procedures for different employees and ensure the proper procedures were followed each time a basic issue arose. This left significant room for error and mismanagement and created frustration for employees. Conversely, the Pass-Through memo ensures managers only need to learn and execute one process and one set of rules,” Hooper explained.
“In 2019, the IRS suspended its existing Pass-Through memo. This new memo not only restores the practice of a Pass-Through memo but also adopts all prior Pass-Through memos, a major step toward the uniformity PMA for which has long advocated. We applaud the IRS, and particularly Chief Human Capital Officer Kevin McIver, for working with us to adopt this change and look forward to supporting managers to ensure it is implemented properly,” Hooper concluded.
