In a move that has sent shockwaves through the public health community, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has halted remote work accommodations for employees with disabilities and those facing temporary health issues. The abrupt policy change, which took effect on August 13, 2025, just days after a shooting at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, has left hundreds of workers in limbo and ignited a fierce debate over civil rights, workplace safety, and the future of federal employment for people with disabilities.
According to Axios, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—the CDC’s parent agency—updated its telework policy to exclude long-term teleworking as a reasonable accommodation for disabled or medically vulnerable staff. This update was communicated to CDC employees via an agency-wide notice on August 13, only five days after the harrowing incident at the Atlanta campus. The timing, many employees say, could not have been worse.
The policy shift has left many CDC staffers feeling both confused and betrayed. The union representing CDC workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), told NPR it has received about 250 emails from disabled employees at the Atlanta headquarters alone, all worried about losing their telework arrangements. These workers include wheelchair users and those who rely on caretakers—individuals for whom in-person work can present significant challenges.
Yolanda Jacobs, president of AFGE Local 2883, described the situation bluntly to NPR: "If there's any discussions happening, it's happening between the CDC's leadership and HHS, it's not happening with the employees. Employees are finding out secondhand and last minute." This lack of clear communication has only fueled the anxiety among affected workers and their supervisors, many of whom are still unsure what the new rules mean for their day-to-day responsibilities.
Adding to the confusion, a CDC-branded memo dated September 16 and obtained by NPR states that all approvals for pending telework accommodation requests are "paused until further notice" while the agency awaits further guidance from HHS. Employees with existing telework arrangements can continue working remotely—at least until their current accommodations expire. But for those hoping to renew or request new accommodations, the future remains uncertain.
The CDC’s decision to pause remote work accommodations comes on the heels of significant internal turmoil. In August, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Susan Monarez, who had served as CDC director for less than a month. Several senior scientists resigned in protest, accusing Kennedy of undermining the agency’s scientific integrity. Monarez herself testified before the Senate on September 17 that she was dismissed for refusing to comply with Kennedy’s demands to fire scientists and pre-approve vaccine recommendations for the public—an explosive allegation that has only deepened the sense of crisis within the CDC.
For many CDC employees, the return-to-office order feels like a direct affront, especially in the wake of the August 8 shooting. As one anonymous CDC scientist told Axios, "People who were literally hiding from a shooter are now being forced to go to the office where it happened." Bullet holes from the attack, reportedly still covered with tape, serve as a grim reminder of the trauma many are being asked to relive by returning to campus. The same employee noted, "There's long been telework at the CDC. There's a training every year. Generally for most scientists it was a normal thing."
Historically, the federal government has prided itself on employing a higher share of workers with disabilities compared to the private sector. Under previous administrations, hiring individuals with disabilities was a cornerstone of the government’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) strategy. The rise of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a historic increase in employment for people with disabilities, as working from home removed many barriers that had previously kept them out of the workforce.
However, the recent reversal threatens to undo much of that progress. As Axios notes, the unemployment rate for workers with disabilities has already returned to 2022 levels—a worrying sign that return-to-office policies may be disproportionately affecting some of the most vulnerable federal employees. The unions representing CDC workers have not minced words, declaring in a joint statement that the new policy "represents the most sweeping civil rights violation against federal employees in decades." They argue that the change also violates President Trump’s federal worker return-to-work order, which, while mandating a return to in-person work, explicitly required agencies to follow all applicable laws regarding accommodations for employees with disabilities.
"They 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," the unions’ statement reads. Legal experts, like Mia Ives-Rublee of the Center for American Progress, point out that the law requires government employers to provide reasonable accommodations unless doing so would be unduly burdensome. Since the pandemic, remote work has generally been seen as a reasonable and effective accommodation that even improves productivity, according to CDC’s own telework training materials cited by Axios. Yet, as Ives-Rublee notes, the rationale for denying remote work as an accommodation has not been fully tested in court.
Complicating matters further, the officials who previously oversaw reasonable accommodation requests at the CDC were fired in April as part of a sweeping reduction in force. This has left a leadership vacuum at precisely the moment when clear, compassionate guidance is most needed. In the absence of centralized oversight, different managers have reportedly given employees conflicting advice about whether and how they can continue to work remotely.
Meanwhile, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told Axios that the CDC is simply following department policy and a January 2025 executive order from President Trump requiring federal workers to return to the office. Neither HHS nor the CDC has responded to specific questions about the new policy or how it will be enforced.
For now, CDC employees with disabilities are left waiting—some clinging to their current telework arrangements, others considering legal action, and many wondering how a public health agency once celebrated for its inclusivity could so quickly become, in the words of one union leader, a symbol of exclusion and uncertainty.
The coming weeks will likely determine whether the CDC’s policy stands or is challenged in court, but for hundreds of employees, the damage—both emotional and practical—may already be done.
