The IRS will soon begin calling employees back to facilities in three states to help with the return filing season.
Starting June 1, non-teleworking IRS employees in Texas, Utah, and Kentucky will be called back to facilities to perform work that can’t be done remotely, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said in a May 19 message to employees. Workers who are able to telework should continue doing so, he added.
“Our business unit leaders are evaluating their needs and will make decisions about how many employees are needed in each location to clear out the backlog of work and safely resume operations,” Rettig said. “Managers will continue contacting employees individually to discuss their business unit’s process for returning to work when facilities are ready.”
Employees with high-risk health conditions can stay home on weather and safety leave, Rettig said.
As many as 11,000 employees could be called back to work in those three states. There are 20,000 IRS employees in those states, with 9,000 expected to remain on telework, National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon said in a separate May 19 statement. He added that employees will be called back in reverse order of seniority.
“IRS has said that it will only recall the number of employees needed to address the ongoing filing season, while providing a safe physical distance between employees,” Reardon said.
In his message, Rettig assured employees that safety is a top priority. “Facilities staff have been working around the clock to ensure the appropriate precautions are taken for the well-being of our employees. They’ve coordinated the cleaning of facilities, provided face coverings and hand sanitizer, and realigned workspace to allow for proper social distancing,” he said.
Reardon said that NTEU representatives will be monitoring compliance with those measures, adding that “if the agency fails to deliver on them, we will alert management and insist on full compliance.”
But the IRS also needs to provide options for employees with small children at home who must use personal leave if they can’t report to work, and it must provide COVID-19 medical screenings for on-site workers, Reardon said.
“The recent experience in Kansas City, in which an employee tested positive only days after voluntarily returning to work, indicates that more screening and testing is needed,” Reardon said.
That Kansas City, Missouri, campus was closed for almost a week after an employee was “presumed positive” for COVID-19 earlier this month. That came about a week after the IRS began partially reopening critical agency workplaces in late April, offering incentive pay to employees voluntarily returning to work.