No more than 2 hours of administrative leave may be granted on the workday immediately preceding a Federal paid holiday as a goodwill gesture. Image: Valerii Evlakhov/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFollowing is the section of new OPM guidance on administrative leave to be used as a template for agency policies on both allowable and prohibited uses both government-wide and on an agency-specific basis.
This section identifies appropriate uses of administrative leave under Governmentwide policies and provides selected examples of appropriate uses of administrative leave for employees of the [AGENCY NAME]. Agencies retain discretion to provide or not provide administrative leave in the listed scenarios; however, under Governmentwide or agency policies, a determination may be made that use of administrative leave should be encouraged in a specific scenario.
Authorized Governmentwide uses
a. Investigative purposes. Under the governing law and regulation, an authorized agency official may place an employee on administrative leave for investigative purposes, but only until the limit of 10 workdays in the calendar year (January 1-December 31) has been reached. This 10 workday limit applies only to the placement of employees on administrative leave for investigative purposes, not to other uses of administrative leave. Once the 10-workday limit has been reached, and if there remains a need to keep the employee in a paid nonduty status because of an investigation, an authorized agency official may then use section 6329b investigative leave. (See 5 U.S.C. 6329a(b)(1) and 6329b(b)(3)(A) and 5 CFR 630.1404.) Note that section 6329b investigative leave may not be used until the 10 workday limit has been reached. Once the 10-workday limit has been reached, and an employee has been placed on an initial period of section 6329b investigative leave in connection with a given investigation, the 10-workday limit is no longer applicable to that investigation, even if the investigation continues into a subsequent calendar year. Thus, if an employee is placed on section 6329b investigative leave near the end of the calendar year due to a particular investigation, and if that same investigation continues into the new year, an authorized agency official is not required to use 10 workdays of administrative leave for investigative purposes under 5 U.S.C. 6329a before resuming the use of investigative leave under 5 U.S.C. 6329b in the new calendar year.
The “investigative purposes” language pertains to situations where an authorized agency official places an employee (by management action not contingent on employee consent) on administrative leave in connection with an “investigation” (as defined in 5 CFR 630.1502) of the employee that could lead to an adverse action or other adverse outcome.
b. Workforce realignment initiatives. Authorized agency officials may use administrative leave to support various workforce realignment initiatives, including Governmentwide and agency-specific Deferred Resignation Programs under which employees are provided administrative leave for a period of time before their deferred resignation (including a resignation that represents a separation for retirement) takes effect. Use of administrative leave in connection with such programs is in the interest of [AGENCY NAME] and the Government as a whole, since it facilitates workforce restructuring and realignment efforts that will lead to a leaner, less expensive, less wasteful, more efficient, and more mission-focused Federal workforce. Authorized agency officials may determine that it is appropriate to use the tool of administrative leave in conjunction with a voluntary deferred resignation in combination with other tools such as voluntary separation incentive payments or voluntary early retirement authorizations. Consistent with the providing of administrative leave in conjunction with the 2025 Governmentwide Deferred Resignation Program, authorized agency officials may consider providing administrative leave in conjunction with agency-specific initiatives as determined to be necessary to achieve agency workforce realignment objectives.
Authorized agency officials may also provide administrative leave during the period of time between an employeeʼs receipt of a notice of involuntary separation (e.g., due to a reduction in force) and the effective date of that separation, if they determine such use supports agency interests.
Beginning in calendar year 2026, use of administrative leave by an employee in connection with a workforce realignment initiative is limited to 12 weeks in any individual instance unless a higher threshold has been jointly approved by the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget in a specified set of circumstances.
c. Geographic relocation of military spouses. Authorized agency officials may provide up to 5 days of administrative leave to their civilian employees accompanying a spouse who is a member of a military service during a geographic relocation occurring as directed by the service memberʼs orders. (See E.O. 14100 of June 9, 2023, and OPMʼs related memorandum of November 9, 2023, to agency heads.) Authorized agency officials are encouraged to provide administrative leave in this scenario.
d. Voting purposes. Authorized agency officials may provide limited amounts of administrative leave in circumstances in which an employee would otherwise have no reasonable opportunity to vote on a regular election day because of the employeeʼs work schedule. Such administrative leave should generally be limited to the hours required to vote and should generally not exceed 3 hours in length. Such administrative leave should be provided only to the extent it does not interfere with agency operations.
Authorized agency officials may provide administrative leave for early voting on a scheduled workday only if it does not interfere with agency operations and if one of the following two conditions is met:
(1) the employee will be unable to vote on the regular election day because of activities directly related to the agencyʼs mission (such as Temporary Duty (TDY) travel) and cannot vote by absentee ballot or by early voting on a nonworkday; or
(2) early voting hours are the same as, or exceed, voting hours on the regular election day.
e. Blood donation. Authorized agency officials may provide administrative leave, typically up to 4 hours, to an employee who donates blood during the employeeʼs tour of duty.
Authorized agency uses
a. Employee Assistance Program. Authorized agency officials may provide limited amounts of administrative leave to an employee for participation in the agencyʼs Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for problem identification and referral to an outside resource and for general employee orientation or education activities.
b. Physical fitness activities. Authorized agency officials may provide limited amounts of administrative leave for approved physical fitness activities provided they do so consistent with OPM regulations on administrative leave, including consideration of the decision factors in 5 CFR 630.1403(a)(6) (see also section C.4.). In providing such leave, authorized agency officials (1) must retain the discretion to provide or not provide administrative leave based on agency judgments of mission needs and (2) may not grant the administrative leave as an entitlement without regard to mission needs.
c. Rest and recuperation. Authorized agency officials may provide limited amounts of administrative leave to allow an employee to rest following unusually lengthy tours of duty or extended travel for work purposes.
d. Early dismissal before a holiday. Authorized agency officials may provide a limited amount of administrative leave so that employees with a scheduled workday immediately before a holiday are allowed to end their workday early. This leave may not exceed 2 hours unless specifically approved by the [TITLE OF AGENCY HEAD]. This leave must be provided as a general goodwill gesture, not as a performance award.
e. Volunteer activities. Authorized agency officials may provide limited amounts of administrative leave for approved volunteer activities, if the authorized agency official determines that the use of leave would satisfy one or more of the four guiding principles in section C.1. Authorized agency officials must balance support for employeesʼ volunteer activities with the need to ensure that employeesʼ work requirements are fulfilled and that agency operations are conducted efficiently and effectively. For more information, see OPM Fact Sheet: Participation in Volunteer Activities.
f. Tardiness. Authorized agency officials may provide brief periods of administrative leave to employees who arrive after their scheduled start time for adequate reason. However, authorized agency officials must consider whether other actions are more appropriate given the circumstances. For example, an official may determine that a tardy employee should be placed in absence without leave (AWOL) status for a period of absence that has not been approved. Notation of the absence as AWOL is not a disciplinary action in and of itself, but an incidence of AWOL could be the basis for taking disciplinary action. Alternatively, an authorized agency official may decide to retroactively approve the employeeʼs use of leave without pay or available annual leave or other paid time off, as appropriate, to cover the absence. An employee on a flexible work schedule with f lexibility to adjust start and stop times who arrives later than the employeeʼs normal start time may not be considered tardy (unless the employee arrives during core hours) and would normally be expected to extend his/her stop time to cover the time not worked due to the later arrival time or use annual leave or other available paid time off.
g. Attendance at a professional organization meeting. Authorized agency officials may provide administrative leave for employees who pay their own expenses to attend a meeting of a professional association or other organization from which an agency could derive some benefit, as described in 5 CFR 251.202(a)(3).
h. Other use. Authorized agency officials may approve a use not specifically approved in this agency policy if (1) no prohibition in section E applies, (2) the official has a delegation of authority that permits approval of a use not listed in this section D, and (3) the use is approved by a higher-level manager (see section B.3(b)).
Governmentwide prohibitions/limitations
a. Marking memory of deceased official. Administrative leave may not be used to mark the memory of a deceased former Federal official. (See 5 CFR 630.1403(b)(1) and 5 U.S.C. 6105.)
b. Reward for performance. Administrative leave may not be used as a reward to recognize the performance or contributions of an employee or group of employees (i.e., in lieu of a cash award or a time-off award, such as authorized under 5 U.S.C. 4502(e) and 5 CFR 451.104(a) and (f)). However, subject to delegations of authority, an authorized agency official may grant administrative leave to all employees of an organization as a morale boosting special goodwill gesture, even if it is broadly linked to the accomplishments of the organization. Such a universal granting of administrative leave to all employees of an organization is not a performance- or contributions-based award to which this prohibition applies.
c. Limited use for voting purposes. Administrative leave may be used to allow an employee a reasonable opportunity to vote in an election only to the extent permitted under section D.1.d.
d. Poll workers. Administrative leave may not be used to cover service by poll workers or poll observers in connection with elections, whether that service is partisan or nonpartisan, paid or unpaid. However, agencies may approve other available workforce flexibilities to allow employees to serve as poll workers or poll observers, such an annual leave, compensatory time off earned via overtime work, compensatory time off for travel, credit hours under a flexible work schedule, adjustment of working hours under a flexible work schedule, or leave without pay.
e. Sick leave purposes. Administrative leave should not be used for the purpose of excusing an employee from duty for a reason for which sick leave could be used (5 CFR 630.401(a))—unless such use in a particular scenario is specifically approved by Governmentwide policy. (By Presidential directive, certain employees with less than 80 hours of accrued sick leave are entitled each year to up to 4 hours of excused absence— not agency-authorized section 6329a administrative leave—for participation in preventive health screenings. See Appendix 1.) However, an employee who is eligible to use sick leave may be granted administrative leave on the same basis it is granted to an employee who is not so eligible when the administrative leave is granted for some other purpose.
Agency prohibitions/limitations
a. Limitation on use for early dismissal before holiday. When a determination is made to grant administrative leave on the workday immediately preceding a Federal paid holiday for employees of an organization as a goodwill gesture, no more than 2 hours of such administrative leave may be granted by an authorized agency official unless a larger amount is specifically approved by [TITLE OF AGENCY HEAD].
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