The Office of Personnel Management recently issued new regulations implementing Section 202(a) of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 (Pub. L. 108-411) which amends 5 USC 6303. The new OPM regulations provide for service credit for non-federal service or active duty uniformed service for the purpose of determining a new federal employee’s annual leave accrual rate. 5 CFR 630.205(c) became effective April 28, 2005, and only applies to new appointments or reappointments after a break in service of at least 90 calendar days to a position on or after that date.
The amount of service credit that may be granted to a new employee is determined at the sole and exclusive discretion of the agency head or designee if the use of this authority is necessary to achieve an important agency mission or performance goal. The total amount of service credit cannot exceed the actual amount of service during which the new employee performed duties directly related to the position to which he or she is being appointed. A new employee, however, has no entitlement to service credit for non-federal service or active duty uniformed service that otherwise would not be creditable for the purpose of determining his or her annual leave accrual rate. The service credit may not be used for any other purpose other than annual leave accumulation.
Each agency is responsible for determining what constitutes adequate written documentation of the employee’s qualifying non-federal service, and all written documentation must be approved by the head of the agency or designee prior to the effective date of the employee’s entry on duty. If the new employee fails to complete one full year of continuous service with the appointing agency due to separation or transfers to a new federal agency prior to completing one full year of continuous service, the employee is not entitled to retain service credit for prior non-federal service or active duty uniformed service. However, the employee will still retain credit for any annual leave accrued or accumulated.
** This information is provided by the attorneys at Passman & Kaplan, P.C., a law firm dedicated to the representation of federal employees worldwide. For more information on Passman & Kaplan, P.C., go to http://www.passmanandkaplan.com. **
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