Time in Grade Policy Stays in Place

OPM has decided to leave in place a traditional policy that requires competitive service GS employees in GS-5 and above to serve a full year at a grade level before being eligible for promotion to a higher level. The Bush administration had issued a rule to abolish that policy, arguing that it hampered management flexibility and penalized employees who had shown ability to advance faster, but the Obama administration stalled implementation several times and in an August 11 Federal Register notice rescinded the rule. OPM said that it wants to consider such changes as part of overall pay, performance and staffing issues rather than piecemeal; Federal unions had opposed the change, arguing that it would raise the risk of favoritism and other non-merit factors in promotion decisions.