ANDOVER — Charlene Kozdra calls herself "one of the nobodies" among the hundreds of workers who will lose their jobs at the local Internal Revenue Service tax return processing center this summer.
"I'm one of the ones they don't care about," said Kozdra, a 43-year-old single mother from Raymond, N.H.
She expects to be laid off by June 30, but said the IRS hasn't been counting her and many other term or temporary workers among its official layoff totals of 700 announced earlier this year.
"There will be no severance for me, there will be no buyout, and I can't apply for jobs posted internally," said Kozdra, a five-year IRS employee. "I'll have to apply from outside just like a new person on the street. And I'll get no preference. Last year we were working 12-hour days to put out the stimulus checks, and this is what they gave us."
Ron Carbonneau, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) Chapter 68, said Kozdra is one of 900 so-called "term and temp" employees who have been virtually forgotten by the IRS in its ongoing plans to close the paper processing operation in Andover.
Carbonneau, a 23-year IRS employee, accused the IRS of "grossly understating" the number of employees who will be affected as the agency converts to a system where most Americans file their tax returns electronically over the Internet.
He represents bargaining unit employees at the IRS Andover Campus, which includes posts of duty in Andover, Fitchburg, Methuen and Lowell.
"If they did not grossly understate it, they were certainly guilty of a significant error of omission," said Carbonneau, 40, of Windham, N.H. "The total job loss to the community would actually be at around 1,500 — much greater than the 700 that was originally reported by the agency in its press releases earlier this year," he said.
Since it opened in 1966, the IRS Andover service center has been a major employer in the Merrimack Valley. More than 3,000 employees work at the center on Route 133.
In September, the Andover facility is scheduled to become the fourth IRS location in the country to stop handling paper tax returns.
In addition to the 622 affected "career" employees, there will be another 900 "term and temp" employees that will be out of a job by the fall unless the IRS "changes its misguided plan," Carbonneau said.
Carbonneau blames IRS officials in Washington, D.C., with creating the plight now facing "term and temp" workers back in 2003 when they created that classification of worker shortly after the agency planned its consolidation.
Although the union opposed the hiring of these workers initially, it now represents them as dues-paying members.
Temporary employees feeling left out
But the IRS says these "term and temp" workers were told that they were not permanent employees when they were hired.
"There are 710 term and temp employees who were hired with the clear understanding that it would be for a limited period of time only," IRS spokesman William M. Cressman said.
Had Kozdra been hired in 2002, she'd probably be doing the same work while enjoying the full benefits of a "career" employee. Instead, she's a union member with substantially fewer benefits.
Even though these employees are performing the same work as their "career" status employee counterparts, there are significant differences in their rights and entitlements, according to Carbonneau.
They don't receive life or health insurance. Nor are they entitled to many of the employee rights or mitigation strategies of displaced workers that the union fought hard to secure, like job swaps, priority consideration in applying for continuing positions, or the ability to follow their work to other cities.
"Some of these employees will have six and seven years of dedicated IRS service, only to be walked out of the door after this consolidation is completed with nothing more than a thank you," Carbonneau said.
Once the work dries up this season, he said, the IRS plans to release these employees directly to the unemployment rolls with no additional support.
Cressman, the IRS spokesman, disagreed with Carbonneau's criticism of about the agency's efforts to help the soon-to-be displaced workers.
While the "term and temp" employees do not receive benefits like buyouts and job swaps, he said they have been encouraged to participate in job training sessions and allowed time to attend local and regional career fairs. He said last week the term employees were allowed to attend a briefing by the Department of Labor to receive career placement assistance.
Ken Harkins, 62, of Lowell is one of the 200 permanent "career" employees in Andover who expects to be laid off. Another 422 seasonal "career" workers are expected to join him in the unemployment line this fall.
"At least I have options that the 'terms' and 'temps' don't," he said. "I'm hoping to get a job swap. And if I want to follow my job, I can go to Kansas City or wherever it's being relocated through the consolidation."
'A kick in the pants'
Even soon-to-be-laid off "career" workers like Harkins have gripes about the way they're being treated.
"I think it's a kick in the pants to the hardworking Andover IRS workers who are losing their jobs that they (IRS) officials say they're going to hire and train new people in Kansas City, Fresno (Calif.) and Austin, Texas, to do the same thing (process paper tax returns) we've been doing here," he said. "The same places that are taking away our work are sending some of it back because they can't keep up with the work."
Carbonneau notes that the Andover IRS processing center has been rated perennially among the top sites in quality and quantity — often taking on work from other sites that could not meet their program completion dates.
But Cressman defends the agency's consolidation plan as "a key element in our overall strategy to streamline the IRS, improve efficiency and customer satisfaction and, significantly, to achieve maximum savings.
"The work in Andover is not being moved, it is going away because e-file continues to grow," he said.
Decisions made by IRS officials in Washington, D.C., could have taken a greater toll on the agency's Andover campus if not for the help of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire congressional delegations, according to Carbonneau.
He credits U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, and U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry with the agency's recent decision to locate 200 new positions at the Andover facility as part of a new compliance program designed to ensure that taxpayers are not under-reporting their income on tax returns.
The three politicians have also joined the union in lobbying IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to delay the layoffs until 2012 and find new work for as many affected employees as possible.
Carbonneau said about 343 positions will be filled within the next few months.
That, he said, is "a good start in mitigating some of the effects of this reduction in force. But more work needs to be done to make a significant difference."
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TIMELINE OF IRS ANDOVER LAYOFFS
2002 — IRS implements its Submission Processing (SP) site consolidation strategy to address declining paper processing workforce needs.
2003 — IRS begins hiring term and temp employees in Andover shortly after it announces the future closure of Andover Submission Processing.
2004 — Nationally, paper filings drop from nearly 80 million in 2003 to about 60 million, according to the IRS. Electronic returns jump from 52 million in 2003 to more than 72 million.
July 2007 — Massachusetts senators and congressmen urge the IRS to keep workers at the Andover facility whose paper-processing jobs are to be phased out over the next two years.
April 2008 — Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, asks IRS to delay planned layoffs for at least three years.
February 2009 — Massachusetts and New Hampshire congressional delegations urge the IRS to delay closing its tax return processing center in response to IRS announcement of more than 700 employees subject to layoffs in the fall.
March 2009 — Tsongas and U.S. Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry announce the IRS would be locating new positions in Andover as part of a new program designed to ensure that taxpayers are not underreporting their income on tax returns. This creates 200 new jobs.
June 30, 2009 — The jobs of 710 term and temp employees are set to expire.
September 2009 — Andover is scheduled to become the fourth IRS location in the country to stop handling paper tax returns. Around 700 career employes will be laid off by the end of the month.
