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.

IRS officials told the National Treasury Employees Union the agency “had obtained quantities of disposable masks for each location so any employee without a mask was provided one by the agency,” said Tony Reardon, the union’s national president, in a statement on Tuesday.


The IRS hasn't responded to inquiries from POLITICO about how many workers have returned; the NTEU and the Professional Managers Association, which represents agency management, didn't provide numbers either.