HHS adds new conditions to telework for employees with disabilities

"All requests for telework, remote work or reassignment must now be approved by an official at the assistant secretary level or above, rather than a supervisor, pursuant to the document obtained by Government Executive dated Sept. 15, 2025, and signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Chief Human Capital Officer Thomas J. Nagy Jr. Agencies are required to provide RAs to workers with disabilities, unless doing so would result in "undue hardship." In addition to telework, other common examples of RAs include interpreters and accessible technology."

"The new policy also bars telework from being granted as an interim accommodation without approval from an official at least at the assistant secretary level. Eric Pines of Pines Federal Employment Attorneys, who specializes in representing employees with disabilities, argued these requirements may deter individuals from applying for an RA. "If you are going to put the deciding level so high as the assistant secretary...you're going to make it much, much harder, on a practical level, for reasonable accommodation requests to be handled in a timely manner," he said."

"Additionally, recent internal communications reviewed by Government Executive show that management officials for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an HHS component, have been told to expect that all existing telework RAs will be repealed, so affected workers will need to reapply. Pines said that action could break the law with respect to feds with "open and obvious" disabilities or who have already submitted medical documentation proving their disability."

HHS requires assistant secretary-level or higher approval for all telework, remote work, or reassignment requests submitted as reasonable accommodations, replacing supervisor-level decision-making. Agencies must provide reasonable accommodations to workers with disabilities unless doing so would cause undue hardship. The policy bars granting telework as an interim accommodation without assistant secretary-level approval. CDC management has been told to expect repeal of existing telework reasonable accommodations, requiring affected workers to reapply. Disability-rights attorneys warn that the higher approval threshold and reapplication requirement could deter requests, delay timely handling, and potentially violate protections for employees with obvious or documented disabilities.

Read at Government Executive