'Bring Your Own Mask,' Says IRS Summoning Employees Back To Work

Internal Revenue Service has called back workers in "mission-critical functions" to the agency offices from Monday.

What Happened

An internal memo stated that people whose work needs to be done in person would be called back to offices, the Wall Street Journal reported. IRS was temporarily closed down since March 24 amid the coronavirus outburst.

"Bringing employees back to work is essential to address mission-critical needs for the nation, and the IRS is an essential component to our country’s whole-of-government approach to confronting the Covid-19 pandemic," the IRS statement said. Employees who agree to come would be offered incentive pay.

Almost 10,000 workers at 10 IRS locations are expected to return with their own safety masks, which could be made out t-shirts of bandanas too using directions from the CDC website.

The memo states that as the agency strives to provide safety gear for all employees, they might not be able to obtain for all of them initially.

Mainly recalled for performing functions related to the filing season and CARES Act Stimulus, the move of bringing your own mask is condemned by two senior Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee. Closing dates for filing remains on July 15 for most taxpayers.

The lawmakers stated that IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig had told congressional staff members that 100 IRS employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19 four have died.