Labor Department discloses mishandling of disability accommodation data after internal breach

In a notice circulated last week, Naomi Berry-Perez, director of the Labor Department’s Civil Rights Center, alerted employees seeking reasonable accommodations that a spreadsheet with personally identifiable and health data was forwarded to a personal email address outside the agency. The internal incident report, discovered on July 22, revealed that an authorized employee sent at least one, possibly several, such emails without permission.

The disclosed data included names, job details, and functional limitation categories such as mobility issues, vision impairment, and mental health conditions, but excluded Social Security numbers or detailed diagnoses. The department is assessing the full impact, destroying the improperly shared files, and considering additional protective measures. Officials also noted a backlog of hundreds of accommodation requests, some pending for months or over a year, and mentioned plans to use AI tools to manage the workload, despite privacy concerns. Employees will receive further notices if additional breaches are identified.