CDC Removes Disability As Reasonable Accomodation for Remote Wk, Backtracks, Union Pressure AFGE

- 'CDC Removes Disability as Reasonable Accommodation for Remote Work, Backtracks After Union Pressure,' Sept. 22, 2025, AFGE
Categories: The Insider ✍
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Leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said employees with disabilities would no longer be approved for telework or remote work as a reasonable accommodation – a stunning violation of workers’ civil rights and the Trump administration’s own policies.

But after days of mounting backlash, including reports that at least one pregnant employee was hospitalized from the stress of the policy change, CDC abruptly announced it was “pausing” implementation of the new rule pending clarification from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a review of its legality. AFGE Locals 2883 and 3840 say the CDC’s move to indefinitely halt the approval or renewal of long-term telework as a valid reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities is “the most sweeping civil rights violation against federal employees in decades.” 

Union leaders emphasized that the decision to pause enforcement does not erase the underlying violation, which they argue remains unlawful under federal disability rights law. It violates protections guaranteed to employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA) of 2008. It also defies a Jan. 22 memo from the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget and Office of Personnel Management that specifically protects telework as a valid reasonable accommodation for a qualifying disability. 

CDC’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, released a revised telework policy in August – effective immediately – that does not include telework as a reasonable accommodation. Although CDC leadership had initially moved forward with that guidance, the outcry from employees and their union forced the agency to backtrack. AFGE representatives say the pause is a face-saving maneuver...
https://www.afge.org/article/cdc-removes-disability-as-reasonable-accommodation-for-remote-work-backtracks-after-union-pressure
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The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination. Disability rights are civil rights. From voting to parking, the ADA is a law that protects people with disabilities in many areas of public life. - New on ADA.gov. Explore the new content we've added to ADA.gov
https://www.ada.gov/
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Wiki, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA (42 U.S.C. § 12101) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[1] which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal, and later sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990