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Law360 (March 17, 2020, 7:42 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is shifting to agencywide telework as the coronavirus continues to spread, it announced Tuesday.
The agency will maintain "minimal staffing needed to handle mail" but has otherwise told workers to telework "until further notice," it said.
"This step allows the EEOC to continue to enforce the nation's employment anti-discrimination laws while taking measures to keep its employees and the public safe," the agency said.
The agency previously expanded telework in certain regional offices and started taking in bias charges by phone to limit person-to-person contact. It also told all workers in its Washington, D.C., headquarters and field office to work remotely last week after an HQ employee "exhibited symptoms consistent with coronavirus," it said at the time.
The EEOC's announcement of agencywide telework comes a day after the NLRB told employees to telework at least for the rest of the month as exposures mounted in its offices. The agency closed its Washington, D.C., headquarters Thursday after a worker there had "close contact" with someone who tested positive for coronavirus, and on Sunday it indefinitely closed its Manhattan, Detroit and Chicago offices following the "possible COVID-19 exposures" of a worker in each office.
The U.S. Department of Labor has "authorized all agency heads to maximize telework nationwide," a DOL spokesperson said Wednesday. The agency previously said it would allow workers in the Washington, D.C. area to telework "to the extent possible" through Friday.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
Update: This story has been updated with a response from the DOL.
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