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By: FEDweek StaffPresident Trump has issued an order closing federal offices and granting an excused day off next Monday for most federal employees, creating a four-day weekend through the Christmas Day holiday next Tuesday.
That follows a pattern going back at least 20 years of employees being given a full day off when Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday.
Like similar past orders, the latest one gives agencies authority to “determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report for duty on December 24, 2018, for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need.”
OPM on Wednesday issued guidance on the order, under which:
* Employees required to remain at work receive holiday pay for that day, doubling their salaries.
* Those who had been scheduled to work that day but who are excused receive the pay they normally would have received for working, with no charge to any form of leave.
* Those who had been scheduled to be on annual leave or other paid leave that day—which likely is a large number—will not be charged for the leave. Those in a “use or lose” situation with their annual leave would need to reschedule the day and take it before the end of the current leave year—January 5, in most cases—or else lose it.
* Those whose work schedules didn’t include that day receive an “in lieu of” day off, which typically is the last scheduled workday before the excused absence day.
The OPM guidance also addresses several less common situations, such as employees on travel, or using a comp day under an alternative work schedule.
The announcement came rather late in the month as such orders go, although in 2012, when Christmas Day also fell on a Tuesday, President Obama’s order giving federal employees the day off on Monday the 24th wasn’t issued until Friday the 21st.
Last year in his first year in office, Trump did not give any additional time off, but that was consistent with past practice of not doing so when Christmas Day fell on a Monday and was preceded by a weekend. Presidents at times have given half-days off rather than full days, typically when Christmas Day falls on a Wednesday or a Friday.
