The Army has issued instructions on handling situations in which its employees either took more furlough time than ended up being required or who strung out their furloughs beyond what turned out to be the ending point for most.
Most Army employees along with other DoD employees started taking furlough days in early July over what was projected to be an average of one per week for the 11 weeks then remaining in the fiscal year. However, DoD later cut the requirement to 48 hours, the equivalent of six days, and in general employees who were taking days at the standard rate of one a week finished their requirement during the week of August 17.
However, some employees front-loaded their furlough time, in some cases in an attempt to qualify for unemployment compensation, which in general requires a person to be off work for a full work week before benefits can begin covering the week after. Those employees "may retroactively cancel the excess furlough hours and substitute annual leave, subject to any labor relations obligations," the memo says.
However, substituting excused absence for excess furlough hours—which some employees might like to do in order to preserve annual leave for later use–is not authorized.
It adds that employees in the opposite situation—who received permission to concentrate their furlough days later—still must take the full 48 hours before the end of the fiscal year September 30.
