Attorneys for Federal Employees — Nationwide

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Today at a Glance

• Forced Rating Distributions: OPM has told FEDweek that its new standardized distribution of performance ratings applies to the fiscal 2026 appraisal cycle closing next month, and that agencies must stand up “calibration” programs by September 20, 2026.

• Reasonable Accommodation Backlogs: The Labor Department plans to use artificial intelligence to triage a backlog of accommodation requests, some pending a year or more, employees say.

• Safety At The National Archives: NARA approved situational telework through August 23 for its Washington headquarters after its union demanded the agency address unsafe conditions around a downtown race route.

Top Stories:

1. OPM Says the New Rating Distribution Applies to the Cycle Closing Next Month — and Calibration Programs Are Due September 20

Source: FEDweek, August 18, 2026

TL;DR: OPM has told FEDweek that the standardized distribution of performance ratings it finalized earlier this year applies to both the fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 appraisal cycles — including the FY 2026 cycle that closes next month. According to OPM’s response to FEDweek’s questions, agencies must establish a “calibration program” for the FY 2026 closeout no later than September 20, 2026, and must design new General Schedule performance management systems and have them approved by OPM before October 1, 2026. A manual for agency performance management officers attached to OPM’s implementation memo gives an example target of 10 percent of employees rated at Level 5 (Outstanding) and 20 percent at Level 4 (Exceeds Fully Successful), within possible ranges of 5 to 15 percent and 15 to 25 percent. OPM says the pattern applies in the aggregate across an agency, with room to vary by component, occupation and geography, and that individual supervisors will not need to follow a pattern in assigning ratings within their own work units. That means any reduction happens above the supervisor: calibration panels of executives, senior managers, HR and other senior officials review ratings and, in OPM’s words, “develop defensible distinctions among high performers.” For scale, OPM has said that in 2024 nearly 43 percent of employees below senior levels on five-level systems received a Level 5 and nearly 22 percent received a Level 4. OPM said it will publish FY 2026 closeout guidance separately, “in the next few weeks.”

For federal employees, this means:

• Your FY 2026 rating can change after your supervisor submits it. If the final rating of record is lower than what your supervisor recommended, ask in writing who changed it and on what basis, and keep the answer.
• Build your own record now, before the cycle closes. Save accomplishment narratives, metrics, awards and mid-year reviews. Calibration panels are told to look for distinctions that can be documented objectively — the employee with a paper trail is the one who survives that conversation.
• A rating is no longer only a rating. Under OPM’s final rules published August 3 and taking effect September 2, performance carries more weight than length of service in reduction-in-force retention, so a rating lowered in calibration can also move you down the retention register.

Legal Insight

5 U.S.C. § 4302(c)(1) requires each agency appraisal system to establish performance standards that, to the maximum extent feasible, permit accurate evaluation of job performance on the basis of objective criteria related to the job or position, and OPM’s rule at 5 C.F.R. § 430.208(c) is what authorizes an OPM-established standardized distribution of rating levels. The routes to fix a rating narrowed at the same time: 5 C.F.R. § 430.208(k) bars challenging a rating of record through a negotiated grievance procedure, and § 430.208(i) limits changes after a rating issues to an informal employee request within 60 days under agency policy, a formal proceeding other than a barred negotiated grievance, a bona fide settlement, or an agency determination that the rating was incorrectly recorded or calculated. Because a rating of record now feeds directly into RIF retention under 5 U.S.C. § 3502(a) and 5 C.F.R. § 351.504, and into unacceptable-performance actions under 5 U.S.C. § 4303, that 60-day informal window is often the only practical opening — if your rating drops in calibration, consider consulting a federal employment attorney before it closes.

2. The Labor Department Wants Artificial Intelligence to Triage Its Reasonable Accommodation Backlog

Source: Government Executive, August 17, 2026

TL;DR: The Labor Department plans to use artificial intelligence to help sort a backlog of reasonable accommodation requests from employees with disabilities and medical conditions, according to an internal email obtained by Government Executive. The email says staff at the department’s Civil Rights Center, which processes those requests, currently must “engage substantively with every request regardless of completeness or likely outcome, limiting capacity and delaying determinations.” Four AI applications are under review; per the memo, AI could triage incoming requests “by likely complexity and documentation sufficiency,” flag incomplete medical documentation earlier, and “assess whether the accommodation requested is effective for the documented functional limitation.” The memo states that Civil Rights Center employees “will continue to make decisions on necessary actions (including how and what is requested).” Labor Department employees told Government Executive the department faces a backlog of hundreds of requests, and Aliyah Levin, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2391, put the figure at “almost a thousand people that haven’t been accommodated.” Employees described waits of nine months to more than a year, including one who filed in March 2025 and is still pending, and one whose interim accommodation is scheduled to expire without an update. Jodi Hershey, a former reasonable accommodation specialist at FEMA, told Government Executive that the staffing problem is real but that if an AI system has already sorted the case and suggested an answer, “the human is grading the algorithm’s homework.” The Labor Department did not respond to a request for comment.

For federal employees, this means:

• Put every accommodation request and every follow-up in writing, with dates. If your request has been pending for months, send a written status request that states the date you first asked and the limitation at issue — that record is what establishes the timeline later.
• Ask for an interim accommodation in writing while the request is pending, and ask again in writing before an existing interim accommodation expires. An expiring interim accommodation is not a denial, but the gap it leaves is where people lose the ability to do their jobs.
• Watch the EEO clock. Waiting on an agency that has gone quiet does not pause it. If you believe your request has effectively been denied, the window to contact an EEO counselor is 45 days, and it does not wait for the agency to finish processing.

Legal Insight

Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 791, obligates federal agencies to provide reasonable accommodation, and the EEOC’s federal-sector regulation at 29 C.F.R. § 1614.203(b) applies Americans with Disabilities Act standards to that duty. Section 1614.203(d)(3) requires every agency to adopt and publish written reasonable accommodation procedures, and § 1614.203(d)(3)(iii) requires that a denial be in writing, explain the reasons, and tell the employee about any internal appeal or informal dispute-resolution option and the right to file an EEO complaint under 29 C.F.R. § 1614.106. The Commission’s Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship treats unnecessary delay in providing an accommodation as a potential violation in its own right, so a request that simply sits is not legally neutral. Because the deadline to initiate an EEO complaint is 45 days from the discriminatory event under 29 C.F.R. § 1614.105(a)(1), a federal employee whose request has been pending for months should talk to a federal employment attorney about when that clock started rather than assume it has not begun to run.

3. The National Archives Approved Telework Through August 23 After Its Union Called the Building Unsafe

Source: Government Executive, August 19, 2026

TL;DR: The National Archives and Records Administration told employees Tuesday that staff whose duty station is Washington, D.C., may telework through August 23 because of construction tied to this weekend’s IndyCar race in downtown Washington. The Archives I building sits inside the planned race route and is bounded on three sides by it; employees said getting to work has required navigating road closures, active construction and a temporary pedestrian bridge over Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Officials with AFGE Council 260, which represents NARA workers, told Government Executive they had been raising concerns since at least June, and that the agency notified employees it would approve telework only after the union sent an email Tuesday demanding management address “unsafe working conditions.” NARA’s message authorized “situational telework, to the extent possible, through August 23,” and pointed employees to other flexibilities such as maxiflex or unscheduled leave. The union said telework through Friday is not enough, particularly for employees with disabilities, and described an employee with mobility issues who found an accessible entrance but could not use it because no one was there to operate the lift, and was then directed to a pedestrian bridge that is not accessible. As of press time the agency had not responded to the union’s request to extend telework into next week, or to Government Executive’s requests for comment.

For federal employees, this means:

• Telework granted as a workplace flexibility is not the same thing as telework granted as a reasonable accommodation. The first can be withdrawn at the agency’s discretion; the second comes with process rights. If you need it because of a disability, ask for it as an accommodation, in writing.
• You can report an unsafe or unhealthful working condition without filing a grievance. A safety report and a grievance are separate channels, and using one does not spend the other.
• If building access is the problem, document it the day it happens — entrances that do not work, lifts with no operator, the route you were told to use instead. Contemporaneous notes and photographs carry far more weight than a recollection months later.

Legal Insight

Section 19 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S.C. § 668, makes the head of each federal agency responsible for providing employees safe and healthful places of employment, and OSHA’s implementing regulations for federal agencies at 29 C.F.R. Part 1960 — issued under Executive Order 12196 — place that program duty on the agency at § 1960.8. An employee may report an unsafe or unhealthful working condition under 29 C.F.R. § 1960.28, which states that such a report “is not a grievance,” and Subpart G of Part 1960, including § 1960.46, addresses the agency’s responsibility when an employee alleges reprisal for exercising these rights. Where the barrier is disability-related rather than general, the better route is a reasonable accommodation request under 29 C.F.R. § 1614.203, because that path carries a written-decision requirement and complaint rights that a discretionary telework approval does not.

Mindful Moment of the Day

The High-Caseload Breath

When the caseload is high and the public still needs answers, it can feel impossible to slow down. You may move from file to file with a tight chest and a sense that no amount of effort is enough. Before opening the next case, take one breath with your full attention. Feel the chair under you, let your eyes rest for a moment, and say, “One person, one file, one step.” Then begin. This does not reduce the caseload, but it protects the quality of your attention. The mission is served better when you are not running on panic alone. 

In Case You Missed It

A few quick hits from our recent posts:

Whistleblower Protection Does Not Depend on Who Runs the IG Office

 OPM’s FOIA Backlog Is Now 84 Days. Here’s How to Get Your Records.

Two Federal Paid Family Leave Bills, One Missing Provision

Your Free OPM Breach Identity Protection Ends September 30

Worried About Retaliation or Being Targeted for Speaking Up?

If you’ve reported misconduct, safety concerns, discrimination, or waste/fraud/abuse—and now you’re seeing sudden schedule changes, bad performance reviews, or threats of discipline—you may be in whistleblower or retaliation territory.