AFGE CDC Unions demand immediate reversal of illegal reasonable accommodation policy changes

The unions representing CDC employees (AFGE Locals 2883 and 3840) condemn HHS and CDC leadership's dangerous plan to indefinitely halt the approval or renewal of long-term telework as valid reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities.   

This reckless move violates the civil rights of federal workers with disabilities—protections guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA) of 2008.   

The plan also brazenly ignores President Trump's Executive Order 13991 requiring agencies to follow "all applicable laws" with respect to returning to full-time in-person work, and further defies the January 22, 2025, joint OMB/OPM memo that specifically protects telework as a valid reasonable accommodation for a qualifying disability.   

HHS and CDC have already failed disabled employees for more than five months by refusing to formally process reasonable accommodation requests—another clear violation of federal law that requires timely processing. After eliminating CDC’s Equal Employment Opportunity Office as part of the April 1, 2025, Reductions in Force (RIF)—an office that is statutorily mandated to exist—there is no evidence that CDC is formally processing reasonable accommodations requests at all. Many members have been waiting since March 2025 to receive updates on a formal decision regarding their RA request. According to CDC policy, “Failure to provide the accommodation may result in a violation of the Rehabilitation Act, so RA requests should not routinely take 60 days to process.”   

This represents the most sweeping civil rights violation against federal employees in decades.   

The agency has abandoned its legal duty to formally process reasonable accommodation requests. Instead, CDC dumps this responsibility on supervisors who can only provide temporary fixes that expire every 90 days. In CDC’s latest missive to employees, the agency has stated that employees can no longer apply for telework as a reasonable accommodation and that as their telework agreements expire, they will be unable to renew the agreement with telework as a reasonable accommodation. This means no CDC employee with a disability will have the option of telework as a reasonable accommodation. Additionally, employees with disabilities are at risk of retaliatory discrimination, disciplinary actions, and loss of essential workplace accommodations. HHS and CDC have engineered a no-win situation for its employees.    

This deliberate confusion violates the interactive process that federal law requires. Agencies must work collaboratively with employees to identify effective accommodations—not create bureaucratic obstacles that harm both workers and their ability to do their jobs.   

Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees with disabilities. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires this protection across all federal workplaces. Agencies must track their performance on reasonable accommodations to ensure adequate processing. Right now, they are doing none of these.   

AFGE Locals 2883 and 3840 will explore every legal remedy and recourse to prevent or reverse these abhorrent violations and stand ready to fight these targeted attacks on the most vulnerable among us.