Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Coronavirus Closes Fresno IRS Offices. Employees to Work at Home.
Bill McEwen updated website photo 2024
By Bill McEwen, News Director
Published 5 years ago on
March 20, 2020

Share

Workers at the Internal Revenue Service offices in Fresno were told that all buildings will close at noon Friday and stay closed until further notice during the coronavirus outbreak.
In an email to IRS employees, Craig Stevens, the senior commissioner’s representative for Fresno, said that employees are expected to work from home or another location if they have the proper technology or when the technology is in place.
Until then, Stevens wrote, “the employee may be granted an equivalent amount of weather and safety leave (i.e., the weather or other safety-related condition could not be reasonably anticipated by the employee, and he/she is unable to perform productive work at the telework site.)”

Tax Return Deadline Pushed Back to July 15

The regional IRS center, which processes tax returns, employs about 5,000 people.
Stevens said that employees should direct questions to their managers.
The shutdown came after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the federal income tax filing date had been pushed back from April 15, to July 15.

Workers Cited Unhealthy Conditions

Before the Fresno closure, employees there expressed concerns about working conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many of my team members are experiencing heightened anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared a national emergency, with the number of cases rising daily,” an employee who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals for speaking told GV Wire Thursday.
“Many of our friends and family are now quarantined in their homes as society has taken on the practice of social distancing yet we are still required to show up to work. There is zero possibility of social distancing at work. We share desks and equipment, and there is no cleaning or sanitizing of work stations between shifts. Unless an employee brings his or her own sanitizing wipes, the IRS does not provide that.”
The same employee said the building is infested with rats.
“Numerous signs throughout the work areas warn employees not to eat in the work areas due to an active rat problem,” she said. “Just a week ago I heard a lady in another pod screech multiple times, to which my team lead responded, ‘sounds like we have a friend visiting.’ None of us new hires understood what he meant, until he explained that the ‘friend’ was a rat. Needless to say, we were a bit freaked out.”

IRS Employees Elsewhere Sought Closures

On Monday, the website govexec.com reported that the National Treasury Employees Union had “called on the federal government to close all federal buildings across the country that house at least 50 employees, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations to end all large gatherings.”
And, on Wednesday, The Texas Tribune reported that IRS employees “sandwiched in cubicles” in the Austin office, said they were worried about unsafe working conditions in the face of the pandemic.
Noting that many of Austin’s IRS workers were elderly with underlying health issues, one employee said, it was like being “in a nursing home on a cruise ship — the IRS Princess.”
Two Princess Cruises ships experienced COVID-19 outbreaks, prompting Carnival Corporation to suspend operations of the Princess Cruises line of ships on March 12.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Top Justice Department Official Is Now Also Acting Librarian of Congress

DON'T MISS

Trump Tower Damascus? Syria Seeks to Charm US President for Sanctions Relief

DON'T MISS

How Real ID Can Exclude ‘Real’ Americans From Flying, Voting and More

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Cite 140 During 10-Hour Weekend Operation

DON'T MISS

Trump Plans to Accept Luxury 747 From Qatar to Use as Air Force One

DON'T MISS

What the World Needs From Pope Leo

DON'T MISS

Trump Orders Drugmakers to Cut Prices in 30 Days

DON'T MISS

Pope Leo XIV Urges Release of Imprisoned Journalists, Affirms Gift of Free Speech and Press

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Food Poisoning Illnesses Caused by Listeria

DON'T MISS

Economic Jitters and Soaring Gold Prices Create a Frenzy for US Jewelry Merchants

UP NEXT

Newsom Urges California Cities and Counties to Ban Homeless Encampments

UP NEXT

‘The Studio’ Knows the Real Reason Movies Are Bad

UP NEXT

India and Pakistan Agree to a Ceasefire After Their Worst Military Escalation in Decades

UP NEXT

Ukraine and Allies Urge Putin to Commit to a 30-Day Ceasefire or Face New Sanctions

UP NEXT

Israeli Airstrikes Kill 23 in Gaza as Outcry Over Aid Blockade Grows

UP NEXT

Experts Call Kennedy’s Plan to find Autism’s Cause Unrealistic

UP NEXT

Summer Movie Guide 2025: Here’s What’s Coming to Theaters and Streaming From May to August

UP NEXT

First At-Home Test Kit for Cervical Cancer Approved by the FDA, Company Says

UP NEXT

Leo XIV’s Service to Poor Propelled Him to Papacy, Cardinals Say

UP NEXT

The State Law Taking a Financial Toll on California Budgets

Bill McEwen,
News Director
Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email

Fresno Police Cite 140 During 10-Hour Weekend Operation

2 hours ago

Trump Plans to Accept Luxury 747 From Qatar to Use as Air Force One

2 hours ago

What the World Needs From Pope Leo

3 hours ago

Trump Orders Drugmakers to Cut Prices in 30 Days

3 hours ago

Pope Leo XIV Urges Release of Imprisoned Journalists, Affirms Gift of Free Speech and Press

3 hours ago

What to Know About Food Poisoning Illnesses Caused by Listeria

3 hours ago

Economic Jitters and Soaring Gold Prices Create a Frenzy for US Jewelry Merchants

3 hours ago

Newsom Urges California Cities and Counties to Ban Homeless Encampments

3 hours ago

Eagles-Chiefs Super Bowl Rematch, Allen-Mahomes Matchup Are Among Biggest 2025 NFL Games

3 hours ago

Warriors, Knicks Will Try to Bounce Back From Home Playoff Losses

3 hours ago

Top Justice Department Official Is Now Also Acting Librarian of Congress

WASHINGTON — The No. 2 official at the Justice Department has also been temporarily put in charge of the Library of Congress, a department o...

43 minutes ago

Todd Blanche responds to a question as he testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination for deputy attorney general and Abigail Slater for assistant attorney general on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 12, 2025. After firing the head of the Library of Congress, the president put his former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, in charge of the facility. (Pete Kiehart/The New York Times)
43 minutes ago

Top Justice Department Official Is Now Also Acting Librarian of Congress

A general view shows Damascus from Mount Qasioun, after one month since the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 7, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi/File Photo
1 hour ago

Trump Tower Damascus? Syria Seeks to Charm US President for Sanctions Relief

Non-REAL ID
2 hours ago

How Real ID Can Exclude ‘Real’ Americans From Flying, Voting and More

Photo of the front of Fresno Police Headquarters
2 hours ago

Fresno Police Cite 140 During 10-Hour Weekend Operation

The motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump is parked next to a 12-year old Qatari-owned Boeing 747-8 that Trump was touring in West Palm Beach, Florida, February 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
2 hours ago

Trump Plans to Accept Luxury 747 From Qatar to Use as Air Force One

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
3 hours ago

What the World Needs From Pope Leo

President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to drug prices, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
3 hours ago

Trump Orders Drugmakers to Cut Prices in 30 Days

Pope Leo XIV meets with members of the international media in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP/Domenico Stinellis)
3 hours ago

Pope Leo XIV Urges Release of Imprisoned Journalists, Affirms Gift of Free Speech and Press

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend