Two of the employees who tested positive worked in an office that processes individual taxpayer identification numbers and in a file warehouse building, the agency said. The immediately affected areas have been closed, and cleanings have been scheduled in both buildings, according to the agency.
Last week, another IRS employee in Austin who worked in submission processing also tested positive, the agency said. That workspace has been cleaned, and work there goes on, the IRS said.
"We continue to have protocols in place to protect employees, including social distancing, signs and markings in many hallways and elevators, requiring the use of face coverings in common areas etc.," the agency said in a statement.
Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers, acknowledged in a statement that the areas where the infected employees worked have been closed but said those closures didn't occur as fast as they should have. The union is working with local management to ensure affected areas are deep-cleaned and is working to help notify workers of possible contact with the people who tested positive, Reardon said.
"NTEU and the IRS employees we represent are concerned about their health and safety as the IRS continues to reopen facilities and call more and more employees back to work, especially in areas where COVID-19 continues to spread," Reardon said.
The union president also reiterated his desire for the tax return filing deadline to be pushed back again, from July 15 to October 15, to protect workers' safety.
This month the IRS started recalling employees who couldn't do their work remotely to work on site in facilities in Texas, Utah and Kentucky. The agency had offered incentive pay to workers who volunteered to come back to worksites, and started asking for volunteers in late April.
More IRS offices have reopened since June 1, and further reopenings are planned later this month. Agency worksites in Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan and Missouri started reopening on Monday for recalled workers who can't work remotely. IRS facilities in Puerto Rico, Ohio, Indiana, Oregon and California are expected to begin reopening for employees whose work isn't portable starting June 29, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in an earlier email to workers.
Austin isn't the only IRS worksite where employees have contracted COVID-19. Reardon said last month that a worker in Kansas City, Missouri, had caught the illness.
--Additional reporting by Joshua Rosenberg and Dylan Moroses. Editing by Neil Cohen.
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