A memo to workers suggests they can make their own face masks out of t-shirts or bandanas.
The IRS will start recalling “certain employees in mission-critical functions” to agency offices starting Monday, though it is urging them to bring their own face masks and suggesting the employees can make them out of t-shirts or bandanas, according to an internal memo circulated Saturday by two lawmakers.
Tony Reardon, who heads the National Treasury Employees Union, said separately that the “initial wave” will include about 10,000 employees at 10 locations who will be “opening taxpayer correspondence, handling tax documents, taking taxpayer telephone calls and performing other functions related to the filing season.”
The IRS shuttered all of its processing and taxpayer assistance centers in recent weeks to shield its workforce from exposure to the coronavirus, and thousands of its employees have been teleworking. But it is now scrambling to get economic stimulus payments to millions of Americans and to implement other key elements of the economic rescue package enacted last month.
The agency is asking for volunteers and offering incentive pay, Reardon said in a statement, but will order employees back if there are not enough volunteers.
“We are communicating with the IRS about working conditions at those facilities to make sure there are adequate cleaning and disinfecting supplies, accommodations to allow for physical distancing among employees and personal protective equipment, including masks and gloves,” Reardon said.
But the agency memo, released by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who heads the panel’s oversight subcommittee, said that while the IRS “is seeking to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves, each IRS facility may not be able to initially procure the PPE for all employees immediately.”
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The IRS will start recalling “certain employees in mission-critical functions” to agency offices, urging them to bring their own face masks https://t.co/nZqkvaEz8L
— POLITICO (@politico) April 26, 2020
Oh, this should work out really well.
IRS employees voluntarily returning to work this week are being given disposable face masks, and the agency is taking other precautions as it attempts to return to more normal service levels, said two organizations representing workers and managers https://t.co/RJoH1nN6EB
— POLITICO (@politico) April 28, 2020
That face mask isn’t even covering the nose. What is the point?
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