AUO Pay Rules Finalized

The Office of Personnel Management has finalized rules it previously issued on an interim basis expanding the situations in which administratively uncontrollable overtime pay can be paid. Under the final rule, published in the January 30 Federal Register, agencies may pay AUO during a temporary assignment that would not otherwise warrant the pay, if the assignment is directly related to a national emergency declared by the President, up to 30 consecutive workdays and up to 90 days total in a calendar year. The rule also states that the time period for which AUO is paid during a temporary assignment is not to be counted in determining the average hours used in computing future AUO payments. AUO is a form of premium pay paid to employees in positions, primarily in law enforcement, in which the hours of duty cannot be controlled administratively and which require substantial amounts of irregular or occasional overtime work.