An employee’s official duty station is the duty station that is documented on the most recent notification of personnel action (for example, on a Standard Form 50) for his or her position of record. Normally, an employee’s duty station is the city/town, county, and state where he or she regularly works, as determined by the employing agency.
For most employees, this will be the location of the employee’s regular worksite—that is, the place where the employee’s activities are based, the location of the employee’s desk or work station, or the place where the employee normally performs his or her duties.
The location of an employee’s official duty station affects his or her location-based pay entitlements. Location-based pay entitlements include locality payments, special salary rates, law enforcement officer geographic adjustments, and non-foreign area post differentials. Employees are entitled to receive the location-based pay entitlements associated with their documented official duty station for their position of record.
The location of an employee’s official duty station may affect other benefits, including travel, transportation, and relocation benefits and overseas allowances and benefits.
Change of Official Duty Station
If an employee is reassigned (temporarily or permanently) to a new work location and receives relocation benefits for moving to the new work location under the General Services Administration’s federal travel regulations, the agency must change the employee’s official duty station to the new work location. The employee will receive the location-based pay entitlements associated with the new work location. If an employee is temporarily detailed to a position in a different duty station or is in a temporary duty travel status (receiving temporary duty travel allowances, such as per diem), the employee’s official duty station remains the location of the old or permanent worksite for the employee’s position of record.
For an employee who teleworks from an alternate worksite, an agency may designate the employee’s official duty station as the location of the employee’s main or reporting office, as long as he or she regularly commutes into that office (at least twice per biweekly pay period). In certain temporary situations, an agency may designate the location of the main or reporting office as the official duty station of an employee who teleworks on a regular basis at an alternate worksite, such as when an employee is recovering from an injury or medical condition that prevents the employee from regularly commuting to the normal worksite.
If an employee is covered by a remote work agreement under which the employee works from home or other specified alternative location full-time and is not required to report to the agency worksite at least twice each biweekly pay period on a regular and recurring basis, there is no need for a temporary exception, and the employee’s official worksite is the employee’s home or other worksite.
Guidance is in Compensation Policy Memorandum 2021-17 at www.chcoc.gov/transmittals.