The National Treasury Employees Union is calling on the IRS to close its Austin, Texas, campus, which it said has seen 29 confirmed positive coronavirus cases since employees returned to work.
NTEU National President Tony Reardon said in a July 2 statement that “the entire campus operation needs to be closed for the safety of the roughly 2,400 employees there and the Austin community.”
The statement comes a little over a month after the Austin service center welcomed back to the office those employees who couldn’t work from home. The IRS temporarily closed three workspaces at Austin facilities for cleaning in mid-June after three employees tested positive.
“I have reached out to Commissioner [Charles] Rettig requesting that the agency take the appropriate and prudent step of sending these employees home until it is safe for them to return,” Reardon said.
Texas has recently experienced an increase in coronavirus cases, and the IRS is attributing the rising number of sick employees at Texas campuses to greater testing and tracing occurring in the state.
“The majority of the uptick in positive case notifications are employees who have been out of the workplace for extended periods — in some instances, since mid-March,” the IRS told Tax Notes in a statement. “These are not necessarily related to the IRS reopening.”
The agency said it will continue to monitor the situation, as the safety of its employees and taxpayers is “a top priority.”
So far, IRS employees have returned to work in 11 states and Puerto Rico. Offices in remaining states will reopen July 13, with the delayed July 15 filing deadline quickly approaching.