On Monday, January 20, 2025, the incoming Administration issued a memorandum directing federal agencies to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to generally resume working full-time in office. On January 22, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management issued a guidance memorandum further clarifying the earlier presidential memorandum.
Under the guidance memorandum, agencies were directed to update their telework policies to restrict telework to cases of disability or other qualifying medical condition, or for what agency management would deem another compelling reason to approve telework. Agencies were directed to distribute copies of the presidential memorandum to all employees, and to seek full implementation of the presidential memorandum within 30 days. The OPM guidance memorandum also directed that, in cases where an employee’s duty station is more than 50 miles from any existing agency office, the agency must take steps to move the employee’s duty station to another appropriate agency office.
As noted, these memoranda included express exceptions for individuals on approved reasonable accommodations for disabilities. Under the Rehabilitation Act, which supersedes any executive order, federal agencies are required to reasonably accommodate disabilities, and potential reasonable accommodations include telework in appropriate circumstances if medically necessary. The memoranda also appear to still permit managers to potentially continue to authorize limited situational telework outside the reasonable accommodation process for medical reasons.
The memorandum did not modify in any way preexisting government policy concerning flextime, compressed work schedules, other alternate work schedules, or concerning employees in part-time or partial retirement status. These memoranda also did not purport to change preexisting government policy concerning the availability of intermittent Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave in appropriate circumstances.
The guidance memorandum did not define or restrict what agencies might deem to be an “other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor.” Possible exceptions that agencies may cite include compliance with preexisting union collective bargaining agreements’ telework provisions, and limits on current space availability for suitable workstations in government offices which might render having all employees on-site simultaneously impracticable.
If you are a federal employee with a disability which prevents you from successfully performing your job on-site or otherwise have concerns about these changes in telework policy, and wish to discuss your rights, consider contacting Gilbert Employment Law, P.C. to request an initial consultation.