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Attachment 2 to CPM 98-9

 

PAY AND LEAVE ADMINISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS


Excusing Employees from Duty

  • Covered full-time employees who can be spared from their usual duties, and for whom Thursday, December 24, 1998, is a regularly scheduled workday, will be excused from duty for the last half of any regularly scheduled nonovertime tour of duty beginning on that day without loss of pay or charge to leave, except as provided below.
  • Part-time employees also will be excused from duty for the last half of any regularly scheduled tour of duty on December 24.
  • This period will be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes.
  • Special rules apply to employees on flexible or compressed work schedules. (See below.)

Determining "In Lieu of" Holidays

  • When a holiday falls on a nonworkday outside a full-time employee's basic workweek, a different day is treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. (See 5 U.S.C. 6103(b).) This day is sometimes called an "in lieu of" holiday. For the purpose of these instructions, the term "half-day holiday" refers to the last half of an employee's scheduled tour of duty beginning on December 24 or an employee's period of time off in lieu of this period, as determined under the rules for designating "in lieu of" holidays.
  • If Thursday, December 24, is a nonworkday that falls outside a full-time employee's basic workweek, the half-day holiday will be observed on the last workday immediately preceding December 24.
  • If Friday, December 25, is a nonworkday that falls outside a full-time employee's basic workweek, the December 25 holiday will be observed on the last workday immediately preceding December 25. If that day happens to be Thursday, December 24, the half-day holiday will be observed on the last workday immediately preceding December 24.
  • Part-time employees are not covered by the statute and Executive order that authorize "in lieu of" holidays for full-time employees when a holiday falls on a nonworkday.

Pay Entitlements

  • Most employees who are excused from duty under the terms of the President's Executive order will receive the pay they would have received for the half-day holiday if no Executive order had been issued. However, an employee with an intermittent tour of duty is not entitled to pay for the half-day holiday unless he or she actually performs work during that period. In addition, when an employee is in a nonpay status immediately before the half-day holiday and at the beginning of the first workday after that period, he or she is not entitled to pay for the half-day holiday.
  • If an employee is not excused from duty because his or her services are required, he or she will receive holiday premium pay under 5 U.S.C. 5546 (if applicable) for nonovertime work performed during the half-day holiday.
  • An employee may not earn compensatory time off for work performed during the half-day holiday.

Leave

  • An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave during the half-day holiday will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for that period. (This policy does not apply to employees who receive annual premium pay for standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1) or to firefighters who are covered by the new firefighter pay provisions enacted by Congress as part of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 (Public Law 105-277, October 21, 1998).)
  • An employee who was previously scheduled to take "use or lose" annual leave during the half-day holiday will forfeit such leave unless he or she makes arrangements to schedule another period of time off on annual leave before the end of this leave year. There is no authority to restore forfeited annual leave under these circumstances.

Employees on Flexible Work Schedules

  • An employee on a flexible work schedule who is excused from duty during the half-day holiday is entitled to a maximum of 4 hours of pay for that period. Similarly, an employee on a flexible work schedule who is required to perform nonovertime work during the half-day holiday is entitled to a maximum of 4 hours of holiday premium pay for that period.
  • Agencies may require employees on a 5/4-9 flexible work schedule (or other flexible schedules under which employees work more than 8 hours a day) to make arrangements to work extra hours, take annual leave, or use credit hours or compensatory time off, as appropriate, in order to fulfill the 80-hour biweekly work requirement.

Employees on Compressed Work Schedules

  • Under 5 U.S.C. 6103(d), an agency may designate a different "in lieu of" holiday period for employees on compressed work schedules than would otherwise be required by law if the agency head determines that it is necessary to do so in order to prevent an "adverse agency impact," as defined in 5 U.S.C. 6131.
  • The half-day holiday for an employee on a compressed work schedule consists of half the total number of hours of work in his or her work schedule on the day involved. Therefore, an employee on a compressed work schedule who is excused from duty during the half-day holiday is entitled to receive pay for half of the total number of nonovertime hours in his or her scheduled tour of duty on that day. Similarly, an employee on a compressed work schedule who is required to perform nonovertime work during the half-day holiday is entitled to holiday premium pay for up to half of the total number of hours in his or her scheduled tour of duty on that day.
  • Compressed work schedules are fixed work schedules. Therefore, an employee on a compressed work schedule may not elect to move his or her nonworkday to another day of the week. Under its authority to revise an employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek, an agency may change the administrative workweek of an employee in writing in advance of the administrative workweek. However, agencies may not require employees to move their regularly scheduled days off solely to avoid paying holiday premium pay.

Contract Employees

  • The President's Executive order does not apply to employees of private sector entities, including contractors. However, a contract may specify that contract employees will be granted any holidays provided by law or Executive order to Federal employees.
  • Contract employees should contact their supervisor or contract officer to obtain information about their contract provisions and the holiday schedule applicable to them.

Questions

  • Questions about this memorandum may be directed to our Pay and Leave Administration Division at (202) 606-2858; FAX (202) 606-0824; or email payleave@opm.gov.

Last Modified: 3:38:04 PM on Wednesday, August 20, 2003