Exceptions include that an agency may grant weather and safety leave to a teleworker who did not take home needed equipment or work. Image: stoatphoto/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM has updated its guidance on changes to work schedules due to weather-related and other emergency reasons, including a reminder that those working offsite generally are not eligible for “weather and safety leave” when it is granted.
That policy now applies to many more federal employees than when the guide was last updated four years ago, due to the pandemic-triggered growth in telework and remote work (where, unlike telework, the employee is not expected to report regularly to an agency worksite).
Like the prior version, the guidance describes the variety of potential responses for emergencies including snow or other severe weather that can range from delayed arrival/early dismissal to closure of facilities. Among the options is granting weather and safety leave, a form of excused absence in which employees are dismissed from work with pay and without charge to any form of personal leave.
“Employees whose jobs are conducive to telework should be prepared to telework for continuity of operations should a weather or other emergency condition occur that requires a maximum telework posture. Telework program participants are generally not entitled to weather and safety leave,” it says.
Similarly, a remote worker–whose home is considered the official worksite—”is generally not granted weather and safety leave when the employee’s parent office (i.e., the office where the employee would work but for the remote work arrangement) is closed, since the employee is able to safely perform work at an approved location.”
Exceptions include that an agency may grant weather and safety leave to a teleworker who “could not have reasonably anticipated the severe weather or other emergency condition and therefore did not take home needed equipment or work”; or to either a teleworker or remote worker if “the home or other approved work site is also impacted in such a way that work cannot be safely performed.”
The guidance also covers considerations such as expectations for employees designated as emergency-essential, and employees on travel, under alternative work schedules, with dependents in the home, who had previously scheduled leave, and more.
It further tells agencies to review telework agreements and continuity of operations plans to “make any necessary changes based on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.” That is to include a review of “eligibility of those employees who teleworked during the COVID-19 pandemic and whose position may have been deemed ineligible to telework in the past. This distinct group of employees should be permitted to sign written telework agreements if their position is now deemed to be eligible to telework following the maximum telework posture.”
Short Extension of Funding Authority in the Works
Schedule F Opponents Say They’ll Keep Trying, but Chances Are Limited
DoD Bill Assumes 4.6 Percent Pay Raise, Includes Range of Other Provisions
Deadlines ahead for FLTCIP Enrollments, Filing Claims over Data Breach
Court Takes Broad Reading of Whistleblower Protections
Extra Time Off around Christmas Holiday Unlikely This Year
Late-Year Retirement Considerations: 2022 Has Advantages for Feds
See also,
The Process of Retiring: Check Your Agency’s Work
Early Marker for 2024 Raise Set: 5.2 Percent
FERS Retirement Planning Bundle: 2022 FERS Guide & TSP Handbook
