Is a stalled reasonable-accommodation request the same as a denial?

No. A request sitting in a backlog is not a legal denial, so the 45-day EEO clock has not started. Document the delay and its harms anyway, because agency inaction on accommodations is exactly what NTEU's lawsuit targets.

How long is the IRS taking to process telework accommodations?

Far past the roughly 20-calendar-day standard. Treasury has more than 6,500 pending requests, about 5,800 of them from IRS employees, some more than a year old. Every IRS telework request must clear one of just seven senior agency leaders.

What is the deadline to challenge a denied accommodation?

45 calendar days from the denial or revocation to contact your agency EEO counselor. It is a hard deadline, and missing it forfeits EEO rights for that action.

Can my agency revoke my telework accommodation because of the return-to-office order?

No. The Rehabilitation Act requires an individualized assessment before revoking an accommodation, and EEOC guidance from February 2026 says an RTO memo alone is not a valid basis.

Where and when was the NTEU lawsuit filed?

In the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 29, 2026, against the Treasury Department (including the IRS) and HHS.

15,500 Stalled Requests: The NTEU Telework Lawsuit

Last Updated: July 5, 2026

NTEU sued the Treasury Department and HHS on June 29, 2026, over a reasonable accommodation backlog that has left more than 6,500 requests pending at Treasury and roughly 9,000 at HHS, most of them disabled employees asking for telework. The standard for processing is about 20 calendar days. HHS admits it needs 6 to 9 months. If your own request is sitting in that pile, the lawsuit matters less than knowing exactly what your rights are while you wait.

The numbers: 6,500+ requests pending at Treasury (about 5,800 from the IRS) and ~9,000 at HHS, versus a ~20-calendar-day processing standard. Some requests are over a year old.
The IRS bottleneck is structural: every telework accommodation request must clear one of seven senior leaders.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues the agencies are violating the Rehabilitation Act by functionally denying accommodations through inaction.
A backlogged request is not a denial, which cuts both ways: your rights are intact, but your 45-day EEO clock has not started. It starts the day you get an actual denial or revocation.
Documented harms already include exhausted leave, AWOL markings, expired pregnancy and lactation requests, and resignations. Don't let your file become one of them without a paper trail.

What NTEU Is Alleging

The complaint's theory is simple: an accommodation request that never gets processed has been denied in everything but name. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act requires agencies to run an individualized, interactive process on each request. Parking thousands of them in a queue for months, NTEU argues, violates that duty at scale.

The documented harms give the theory its teeth. Employees waiting on rulings have burned through leave balances, been marked AWOL, reported in person against medical advice, watched pregnancy and lactation telework requests expire unreviewed, been forced to hand sensitive medical records directly to supervisors, and in some cases quit federal service entirely.

This is also the second front against the same agencies. In January 2026, an arbitrator ruled that HHS's return-to-office memo cannot override the telework protections in its union contract. The agencies are now being challenged on the contract side and the disability-law side at once.

Why the Queue Got This Long

The return-to-office order is the backdrop: OPM's December 2025 guidance directs full-time in-person work with telework used "sparingly," and roughly 90% of federal employees are now on-site full-time. Disability accommodation is the statutory carve-out that RTO cannot extinguish, which made the RA process the pressure valve for everyone with a medical need, all at once.

Then there's the design choice. At the IRS, every single telework accommodation request must be reviewed by one of seven senior agency leaders. Seven people, 5,800 requests. HHS tried reassigning staff internally in April just to work its 9,000-deep queue and still projects 6 to 9 months.

If Your Request Is Stuck: The Playbook

The operational rules the news coverage skips:

Get everything in writing and keep copies. A verbal request counts legally, but the paper trail is your evidence of when you asked and what the agency didn't do.
Understand the 45-day clock. You have 45 calendar days from a denial or revocation to contact your agency EEO counselor. A request in the backlog is neither, so your clock has not started. The day a denial letter lands, or your existing accommodation is effectively pulled, count from that date. Missing it forfeits EEO rights for that action.
An agency that never engages is violating the rule by itself. Failure to participate in the interactive process is its own Section 501 problem. Note every unanswered follow-up.
Don't self-terminate. Resigning or going AWOL while a request pends undermines your claim. Keep requesting, keep documenting, stay employed if you can.
Log the harm. Leave hours burned, medical impacts, expired requests: that's exactly the evidence the lawsuit runs on, and NTEU members in the backlog are the class it's built from.

One number worth having ready: what the commute actually costs you. If a denial forces a relocation-or-resign decision, the GS Pay Calculator shows what your locality pay looks like anywhere you'd land.

Where This Fits in the Bigger Telework Fight

The RTO baseline and its exceptions are covered in our federal telework policy guide. The individual-rights mechanics, including the interactive process, medical documentation limits, and the EEOC's February 2026 position that an RTO memo alone can't revoke an approved accommodation, live in our reasonable accommodation rights guide. This lawsuit is the live test of that whole framework, and we'll track the docket.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my backlogged request legally denied?

No, and that distinction protects you: your EEO deadline hasn't started running while the agency sits on it. It starts at an actual denial or revocation.

Which employees does the lawsuit cover?

NTEU brought it on behalf of bargaining-unit employees at Treasury (including the IRS) and HHS, the two agencies with the documented 6,500+ and ~9,000 backlogs.

What's the normal processing time supposed to be?

Roughly 20 calendar days. Both agencies are months past it, HHS by its own 6-to-9-month admission.

Can the RTO order override my existing accommodation?

No. Revoking an accommodation requires an individualized assessment. An across-the-board RTO memo does not qualify, per EEOC's February 2026 guidance and the January arbitration ruling at HHS.

What should I do this week if I'm in the queue?

Confirm your request is documented in writing, log every follow-up and every hour of leave the delay has cost you, and loop in your union rep. If a denial arrives, calendar day 45 immediately.

Federal Reasonable Accommodation Rights: The interactive process, documentation limits, and the 45-day clock in full.
Federal Telework Policy 2026: The RTO baseline and its statutory exceptions.
GS Pay Calculator: Locality pay math if a denial forces a move decision.

Sources: Federal News Network, June 29, 2026, FedWeek, GovExec, EEOC Section 501 guidance.