for pads replacement on brakes without ABS, usually, mechanic uses a c-clamper to compress the piston to make space for new pads. If he does the same thing to the ABS system without bleeding the fluid out, that can damage the ABS system all together, it does not happen each time they compress, but it can happen quite often if he does this. for regular brake, such compression will make the fluid to go back to the master cylinder while ABS is highly pressurized, such compression might result permanent damage to the whole system, hopefully, it is not the root cause in your case.
Good luck