Can an Agency Order Employees to Return to the Office if Their Telework is an Accommodation?
February 25, 2025
Dear FELTG: Our agency has issued return to in-person work orders which require all employees with telework agreements to report onsite 5 days per week. Does this include people on telework as a reasonable accommodation?
I sure hope not.
Does an agency have the authority to cancel telework for its employees? Yes. Telework is a privilege, for most employees, and under the law (5 USC 302) and agency policies, management can require telework-eligible employees to report onsite. And they can remove employees who refuse. See Wong v. Commerce, DC-0752-17-0298-I-2 (Dec. 8, 2023)(NP).
BUT…sometimes telework is an entitlement. And telework as disability accommodation is one of the areas where a qualified employee may have just such an entitlement. Agencies violate the Rehabilitation Act if they remove a qualified employee’s existing accommodation without regard to the employee’s situation.
There are certain circumstances that give agencies the right to revisit an existing accommodation. But a unilateral cancellation of all telework, including telework as RA, is a losing battle for the agency, and may cause irreparable harm to the employee in the process.
Here are just a couple of cases where the agency violated the law when it revoked an existing telework accommodation:
- Because she had irritable bowel syndrome, the complainant was on 100 percent telework with a flexible schedule. The accommodation had been in place for several years and she had been successfully performing her duties the entire time. A new supervisor took over the department and cancelled all existing telework agreements, including the complainant’s. The complainant notified the supervisor she needed telework to accommodate her disability and requested the RA be granted back to her, but the supervisor refused, claiming the complainant’s job was not telework eligible. Sandra A. v. Navy, EEOC Appeal No. 2021002132 (Sept. 16, 2021), request for recon. denied, EEOC Request No. 202200276 (Mar. 7, 2022).
- The employee was on a schedule allowing telework Mondays, Tuesday, and Wednesdays, and reported onsite on Thursdays, because of medical restrictions. The agency changed the employee’s telework schedule despite her successful performance and the fact that she provided medical documentation that the schedule she had was the only accommodation that would work. Cheryl L. v. Treasury, EEOC Appeal No. 2021001710 (Sept. 26, 2022).
Telework as an accommodation isn’t going anywhere any time soon, so if you need training for your agency please let us know how we can help. A training class is a lot less expensive than losing a case before the EEOC. [email protected]
Have a question? Ask FELTG.
The information presented is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. Contacting FELTG in any way/format does not create the existence of an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, you should contact an attorney.
Related training:
- Telework as a Reasonable Accommodation in 2025: Handling Return to In-Person Work Exemption Requests, Feb. 25 –that’s later today, register now!
- EEOC Law Week, March 24-28
- Reasonable Accommodation in the Workplace: 5-part Series, starting July 17