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In what amounts to one of the first after-action reports on agency responses to the pandemic, the IG at the IRS has found that a lack of offsite working capability caused the agency to put some 35,000 employees, about half its workforce, on weather and safety leave at first—and that even once more employees were able to do their work remotely they encountered technical problems.
Weather and safety leave is essentially a form of excused absence in which employees remain on full pay; the IRS was one of the agencies that made the heaviest use of that authority early in 2020 “because their work was either nonportable or they did not have the necessary information technology equipment to work remotely,” the IG said.
“Many of the employees on WSL were employees who worked in Tax Processing Centers whose work is performed on-site and is not conducive to telework. This caused significant backlogs in paper returns, payments, correspondence, and similar types of work,” it said.
The numbers on that leave decreased as the agency started distributing what eventually was some 20,000 laptops that employees could use for working offsite and as the IRS reopened many offices on a limited basis. However, in mid-2020 than 7,000 employees still were in paid leave status and there was a spike to about that level along with a resurgence in infections late in the year.
Also, “technology-related concerns impacted teleworking employees” including difficulties in logging into restricted systems, network downtime, delays in getting assistance through the helpdesk, and more.
To enable more employees to telework, the IRS waived requirements to have an approved telework agreement and to have taken telework training. As of March of this year some 3,200 teleworking employees still have not completed that training, it added.
The agency more recently decided that it would allow employees to telework only if they have completed telework training and have an approved agreement, according to the report.
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