OPM however will not extend the deadline for scheduling “use or lose” annual leave, even if employees were unable to use such leave during the shutdown period." Image: kostasgr/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM’s guidance on federal employment policies on the end of the shutdown addresses a number of considerations regarding leave policies, including that for both furloughed employees and “excepted” employees who remained on the job, the time counts for accrual of annual and sick leave.
“An employee furloughed during the lapse in appropriations must now be considered to have been in a pay status because of entitlement to retroactive pay. Annual and sick leave will accrue in accordance with the normal rules that apply to employees in a pay status.
“Excepted employees earned pay and accrued leave during the periods they performed excepted work activities, even though no payments could be made during the lapse. With the payment of retroactive pay, agencies must properly credit excepted employees’ leave accrual,” it says.
An employee previously approved to be on advanced annual and/or advanced sick leave during the lapse in appropriations “would have been furloughed instead, and the scheduled leave cancelled. Because these employees were furloughed because of the lapse, and otherwise would have been in a pay status during the advanced leave period, they will receive retroactive pay and will not be charged advanced annual and/or sick leave for that time,” it says.
OPM however will not extend the deadline for scheduling “use or lose” annual leave, even if employees were unable to use such leave during the shutdown period “either because they could not be excused from excepted work, or because they were placed on furlough, and their previously scheduled leave was cancelled.”
In most cases, employees may carry no more than 240 hours of annual leave into a new leave year—the next one begins January 11—and must forfeit any excess. An agency may restore the leave, though, if the employee was unable to take it due to an “exigency of the public business”—but only if the leave was scheduled before an annual deadline which this year is November 29.
“Because the lapse in appropriations ended well before the November 29 scheduling deadline, there is a reasonable opportunity for an employee to reschedule before the deadline any use-or-lose leave that was canceled during the lapse. Thus, all employees should schedule the entirety of their use-or-lose leave by the November 29 deadline to protect their ability to seek restoration of any annual leave forfeited at the end of the leave year,” the guidance says.
Other policies in the guidance include:
* In the case of an employee who was on preapproved LWOP during the lapse in appropriations, the employee must continue to be charged LWOP for all periods of such preapproved LWOP that occurred during the lapse.
* If an excepted employee requested and was authorized to use paid leave during the lapse, the employee will be charged for that leave. An excepted employee may not use paid leave during periods when the employee was in an AWOL status.
* If an employee was on preapproved LWOP during the lapse in appropriations, he or she must continue to be charged LWOP for the duration of the period approved as LWOP, including holidays.
* Agencies are to check their records for any employees who filed for unemployment compensation during the shutdown and notify the pertinent state. States generally require repayment of any such benefits from persons who receive back pay covering the time; processes vary by state.
* Payments of severance pay for employees who were involuntarily separated that was delayed should now resume. Similarly, agencies are now to pay delayed amounts of buyouts (voluntary separation incentive payments) with an effective date during the shutdown; the same applies to delayed lump-sum payments for annual leave for those who separated in that time.
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See also,
Calculating Service Credit for Sick Leave At Retirement
FERS Supplement vs The 10% Pension Bonus
How Your FERS, Social Security and TSP Payments Get Taxed
Where Should I Put My TSP in Retirement
