Posted on 07/17/25
| News Source: Federal News Network
Washington, D.C. - July 17, 2025 - The Trump administration will allow a limited amount of telework to federal employees who request a religious accommodation — a narrow carveout to its return-to-office mandate.
The Office of Personnel Management, in guidance released Wednesday, told agencies to let employees telework on a limited basis, if they seek a reasonable accommodation on religious grounds.
OPM’s guidance states “agencies are strongly encouraged, where feasible, to consider telework as a reasonable accommodation for religious practices.” That includes sabbath holiday observance, scheduled prayers, services, meditation, fasting and other religious obligations.
The guidance offers some leeway to the Trump administration’s policy requiring most federal employees to work in the office full time.
OPM is sending out this guidance to comply with the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling in Groff v. DeJoy. The court’s decision makes it harder for employers in and out of government to deny religious accommodations in the workplace.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, ruled that employers must grant a religious accommodation, unless doing so would create an “undue hardship.”
Before the ruling, employers had to meet a “de minimis” standard to prove that accommodating a religious accommodation would be unreasonable.
The Supreme Court made its ruling in the case of Gerald Groff, a former rural letter carrier in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who refused to work Sundays. The Supreme Court referred Groff’s case back to a lower court. Groff and USPS eventually reached a settlement in May of this year.
OPM told agencies that telework on a limited basis “is often a low-cost solution” for religious accommodations, since it “typically does not impose substantial operational burdens.”
“Telework can enable employees to fulfill religious duties without compromising agency missions,” OPM wrote.
OPM recommends agencies allow employees to telework on sabbath days and on days of religious significance — as well as on days leading up to those occasions, to avoid travel or commuting time, “which may interfere with preparation or observance.”
The guidance recommends agencies approve telework so that federal employees can take breaks in the workday to engage in fasting-related practices, such a prayer or rest “in a quieter or more private setting.”
Agencies are also encouraged to approve telework to provide flexibility for employees to follow time-specific religious practices during breaks in the workday.
“Denials of telework accommodations for religious practices or observances must be justified with evidence of significant operational impact, per Groff,” OPM wrote.
Beyond telework, OPM says agencies should let employees use certain types of leave or flexible work schedules as part of religious accommodations.
In some cases, agencies have scrapped these flexible work schedules for all other employees.
In May, the IRS stopped allowing employees to go on alternate work schedules and work 10-hour days, four days a week — instead of working a more traditional eight-hour day, five days a week.
President Donald Trump issued a memo on his first day in office, calling on agencies to “take all necessary steps” to terminate remote-work agreements and bring federal employees back to the office.
In follow-up guidance to the memo, OPM directed agencies to update their telework policies to state that “eligible employees must work full time at their respective duty stations unless excused due to a disability, qualifying medical condition, or other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor.”
Agencies across the federal government have dealt with overcrowded offices, and struggled to find enough desks and workspaces for employees who are now working in-person full time. Federal employees have also raised concerns about the condition of their worksites. Drinking water in some buildings recently tested positive for lead contamination or elevated levels of Legionella bacteria.
The Trump administration has approved situational telework in some cases. Last month, OPM encouraged agencies to allow telework during the week a military parade was held in downtown Washington, D.C. to commemorate the Army’s 250th anniversary.
The Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish organization‚ said in a statement that it worked closely with OPM on its guidance.
Nathan Diament, the group’s executive director, said the guidance will give federal employees who are observant Jews plenty of time to work with their supervisors to plan accommodations ahead of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and the other religious holidays in the fall.
“No one should have to choose between public service and their faith,” Diament said.
The Trump administration has also urged federal employees to report any instances of “anti-Christian discrimination.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a task force in April to investigate instances of anti-Christian bias —specifically seeking cases where employees believe they were denied promotions for religious reasons, or faced retaliation for seeking a religious exemption to vaccine mandates.