ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week is pausing all long-term work-from-home accommodations, including for employees with disabilities, according to an internal note reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The move comes after the CDC’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, issued an updated policy in mid-August removing telework as a “reasonable accommodation” option for employees.

On Tuesday, the CDC posted an official announcement in an internal publication detailing HHS’ updated telework policy. The CDC’s Office of Human Resources requested clarification regarding the new policy, according to the note.

“Until additional clarification is received, all approvals for long-term telework — as well as reasonable accommodation (RA) long-term telework — are paused until further notice,” it said.

Two unions representing CDC employees are condemning the move, saying it “violates the civil rights of federal workers with disabilities.”

“This represents the most sweeping civil rights violation against federal employees in decades,” two chapters of the American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement Wednesday. The unions said they are exploring “every legal remedy and recourse to prevent or reverse” these changes.

In response to questions about the policy, an HHS spokesperson said the CDC is currently adhering to the department’s telework policy and President Donald Trump’s January executive order requiring all departments and agencies in the executive branch to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.”

The move comes shortly after CDC employees returned to the office for the first time since the Aug. 8 attack on the agency.

The gunfire, which lasted about 35 minutes, hit blast-resistant glass and sent shards traveling up to 50 feet, according to a CDC internal email and 911 records and dispatch reports obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Officer David Rose with DeKalb police was shot and killed while responding to the scene.

On Monday, the CDC’s employees went back to an office still riddled with bullet holes.

CDC employees were told to come back in an email from the agency’s new chief operating officer, Lynda Chapman, who said last month the agency was taking “necessary steps to restore our workplace” and would “return to regular on-site operations” by Sept. 15.

Some employees were frustrated by the return-to-office mandate because they’ve proven they can do their work remotely, according to Vi Le, a former behavioral scientist at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who is also a volunteer with the AFGE Local 2883.

Some employees were frustrated by the return-to-office mandate because they’ve proven they can do their work remotely, according to Vi Le, a former behavioral scientist at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, who is also a volunteer with the AFGE Local 2883.

Le told the AJC on Monday it felt like a “purposeful demoralization of the workforce, especially when the political appointees don’t have to come into the office every day.”

The CDC has also recently been buffeted by changes in its top ranks. Last month, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. fired CDC director Susan Monarez. Shortly after that, at least three top CDC officials announced their resignations.

Monarez testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday that Kennedy failed to give her a courtesy call after learning employees had been shot at.

(Staff writer David Aaro contributed to this report.)

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