5 U.S.C. § 6502 — Executive agencies telework requirement

(a) Telework eligibility. (1) Within 180 days after this chapter was enacted, each executive-agency head had to establish a policy allowing eligible employees to be authorized to telework, decide every employee's eligibility, and notify employees. (2) An employee^* cannot telework under the policy after official discipline for more than 5 days' unauthorized absence in a calendar year, or for violating ethics rules by viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography, including child pornography, on a Government computer or while performing official duties. (b) Participation. The policy must protect employee performance and agency operations; require a written, mandatory agreement between the manager and employee describing the arrangement; bar authorization when the employee does not follow the agreement; generally exclude daily duties requiring direct handling of secure material the agency head finds unsuitable for telework or on-site work that cannot be done remotely or elsewhere; include telework in continuity-of-operations plans; and list when temporary work from approved overseas locations is allowed. Except in an agency-head-determined emergency, those overseas circumstances cannot include duties requiring at least monthly direct handling of unsuitable secure material. (c) Required telework. If an agency places an employee on investigative leave under section 6329b, it may require similar duties by telework only if it decides this will not threaten anyone, destroy investigation evidence, lose or damage Government property, or otherwise harm legitimate Government interests; the employee is eligible under (a) and (b); and telework is appropriate.