The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is exploring workarounds to a new Department of Health and Human Services policy, which sets stricter rules on telework as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities.<\/p>\n
The HHS policy states<\/a> all requests for telework, remote work, or reassignment must be reviewed and approved by an assistant secretary or a higher-level official \u2014 a decision that is likely to slow the approval process.<\/p>\n The new policy, as Federal News Network\u00a0reported last week<\/a>, generally restricts employees from using telework as an \u201cinterim accommodation,\u201d while the agency processes their reasonable accommodation request. But faced with a backlog of more than 3,000 reasonable accommodation cases<\/a>, the CDC is taking an ad-hoc approach to granting temporary medical telework.<\/p>\n According to four CDC employees, supervisors have instructed staff to email their medical documentation directly to Lynda Chapman, the agency\u2019s chief operating officer, to \u201cbypass\u201d the traditional reasonable accommodation system, and receive up to 30 days of telework as an interim accommodation.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n \u201cThe instructions are for you to email her a letter from your doctor, and she will be the judge of if you can telework for up to 30 days,\u201d a CDC employee told Federal News Network.<\/p>\n A second CDC employee shared a photo with Federal News Network showing that Chapman was recently added as an authorized official to review the employee\u2019s reasonable accommodation materials.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is very problematic, because she really should not be evaluating people\u2019s health needs,\u201d the employee said. \u201cIt should be an RA specialist.\u201d<\/p>\n Two CDC employees told Federal News Network that Chapman is only approving interim telework in a few circumstances \u2014 including recovery from surgery, pregnancy or chemotherapy.<\/p>\n This week, the CDC hosted a series of \u201coffice hours\u201d sessions with supervisors. During these question-and-answer sessions, the agency\u2019s Office of Human Resources gave supervisors more information about the new reasonable accommodation process.<\/p>\n \u201cI was requested to share my medical information via personal email to Lynda Chapman,\u201d a CDC employee wrote in a screengrab of one of these Q&A sessions. \u201cWhen I questioned her role prior to sending my file, she denied my request.\u201d<\/p>\n Linnet Griffiths, a former senior advisor to CDC\u2019s chief operating officer who left the agency in April, told Federal News Network that the agency had a \u201crobust system\u201d for processing reasonable accommodations, but said many employees who carried out this work were targeted by reductions in force.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n \u201cThey have gotten rid of all the RA staff and EEO offices, which is extremely disturbing, because the department already had a lot of RA cases, a backlog that was unbelievable. They were understaffed,\u201d Griffiths said.<\/p>\n Griffiths said human resources employees who left CDC and HHS received specialized training to ensure the agency was following \u201cdue diligence\u201d when processing reasonable accommodations. That included making sure the agency complied with requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had in-house doctors that were specifically trained to review that information and approve whether someone should be eligible for full-time telework,\u201d Griffiths said. \u201cThe [CDC] chief operating officer or someone that does not have medical expertise reviewing that information was something we would never do.\u201d<\/p>\n Griffiths said that reasonable accommodation requests often took months to get approved during her tenure at CDC, but said the agency granted full-time telework as an interim accommodation, when deemed necessary by an employee\u2019s doctor.<\/p>\n In a readout from one of these \u201coffice hours\u201d meetings, obtained by Federal News Network, agency leadership told supervisors that, under the new HHS policy, they cannot approve interim telework requests, even in cases where telework has already been identified \u201cas the only effective accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the readout, supervisors were told that expiring telework agreements, granted as an interim accommodation, will not be renewed, and that employees will have to either return to the office or use leave. Supervisors were told that these outcomes were \u201cnot denials.\u201d Instead, supervisors were instructed to tell employees that telework could not be granted.<\/p>\n \u201cSeveral supervisors noted this functions like a denial in practice,\u201d the readout states. \u201cLeadership acknowledged legal risks associated with forcing or effectively compelling leave.\u201d<\/p>\n During one of the sessions, multiple supervisors raised concerns that agency guidance conflicts with federal disability law.<\/p>\n \u201cLeadership directed supervisors to stop discussing legal issues during the session, stating it was not the forum for legal discussion, and advised that such concerns should be raised offline through supervisory channels,\u201d the readout states.<\/p>\n ]]><\/p>\n According to the readout, when supervisors raised concern about personal legal exposure, leadership advised supervisors to \u201cconsider obtaining professional liability insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, the call left many supervisors concerned about how to lawfully provide interim accommodations, the lack of written guidance, and how to avoid harm to employees while complying with the direction given,\u201d the readout states.<\/p>\n A CDC spokesperson said in a statement that interim accommodations, including telework, \u201cmay be provided while cases move through the reasonable-accommodation process toward a final determination.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis has always been the case,\u201d the CDC spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u2018Outsized harm\u2019<\/p>\n