Paid Leave
Annual and Sick Leave:
General Rules
The federal government has made provisions
for authorized absence from work, usually through earned leave,
for most of its employees. These provisions, spelled out in chapter
63 of Title 5, U.S. Code, enable employees to take off for vacations
or personal business, or when they are ill.
The leave law applies to most civilian employees
of the government. Among those employees who are exempt from the
leave law are congressional employees and those workers who do
not have established tours of duty.
Except for emergencies, an employee’s
use of annual leave generally must be authorized in advance, usually
by the employee’s immediate supervisor.
Authorization for sick leave, because of its
nature, is not usually obtained in advance, except for cases where
employees know they will be unable to work because of medical,
dental, or optical examinations or treatment, an operation, a
period of convalescence, a lengthy illness, or something similar.
Employees absent from work because of illness
may be required to submit administratively acceptable evidence
that they were ill and unable to work for periods in excess of
three workdays or for a lesser period when determined necessary.
The agency may require a medical certificate.
Charges for annual and sick leave are normally
in increments of one hour. However, an agency may on its own initiative,
or on the basis of union negotiations, establish a policy for
charging leave in lesser amounts.
Advanced Leave—At the
discretion of the agency, a maximum of 30 days of sick leave may
be advanced to an employee with a serious disability or ailment
or for purposes related to the adoption of a child. A maximum
of five days of sick leave may be advanced for family care or
bereavement purposes.
Supervisors may grant advance annual leave
consistent with agency policy. The amount of annual leave that
may be advanced is limited to the amount of annual leave an employee
would accrue in the remainder of the leave year. Employees do
not have an entitlement to advance annual leave. In most cases,
when an employee who is indebted for advance annual or sick leave
separates from federal service, he or she is required to refund
the amount of advance leave for which he or she is indebted.
RIF Situations—In reduction-in-force
and other restructuring situations, an employee may use annual
leave to establish initial eligibility for retirement or to continue
health insurance coverage into retirement so that the employee
may remain on the agency’s rolls after the effective date
the employee would otherwise have been separated. Employees may
not use advanced annual leave for these purposes, but only accrued
or restored annual leave that has been credited to their account
before the effective date of a RIF or relocation and annual leave
earned while in a paid leave status after the effective date of
the RIF or relocation. In a RIF situation, whatever retention
standing an employee had when these rights are exercised remains
in force until the RIF is completed. Once employees exercise these
rights and they are retained under this authority, they may not
use any other type of leave.
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Annual and Sick Leave: Accrual
and Use
Annual leave is earned on the basis of years
of federal service, including creditable military service. Full-time
employees with 15 years or more service earn 26 days of annual
leave a year; those with three but less than 15 years earn 20
days; and those with less than three years earn 13 days. Normally,
part-time employees with 15 years or more service earn one hour
of annual leave for each ten hours in a pay status, those with
three but less than 15 years earn one hour for each 13 hours in
pay status, and those with less than three years earn one hour
for each 20 hours in pay status.
Full-time employees earn 13 days sick leave
a year; part-time workers earn one hour of sick leave for each
20 hours in a pay status.
Employees are permitted to accumulate annual
leave, but within certain limitations. The law permits most employees
to accumulate 30 days of annual leave, although overseas employees
are allowed to accumulate 45 days. Under this system, employees
have to “use or lose” their excess leave by the end
of the leave year with certain exceptions. Employees with an authorized
accumulation in excess of 30 days who return to a position with
a 30-day maximum accumulation limit are allowed to retain their
excess annual leave until used. Special rules apply to SES members.
In determining annual leave accrual rate for
military retirees, credit for military service is limited to service
during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign
badge is authorized, unless the retiree was retired on the basis
of combat disability, or was employed on November 30, 1964, in
a federal civilian position to which the annual and sick leave
laws apply, and has not had a break in service of more than 30
days thereafter (5 USC 6303(a)).
Generally, when employees transfer between
positions, accrued amounts of annual and sick leave are transferred
to the new employing agency. When employees transfer to agencies
with a different leave system, the leave normally is transferred,
sometimes on an adjusted basis.
New employees may use their annual leave as
they earn it during their first 90 days if their appointments
are for 90 days or longer.
There is no limit on the amount of sick leave
that can be accumulated. Employees who leave federal service are
not entitled to lump-sum payments for unused sick leave. However,
if workers are reemployed in the federal service after December
2, 1994, the amount of previously accumulated, unused sick leave
is re-credited to their accounts (unless it was previously forfeited
due to reemployment before Dec. 2, 1994). (Prior to 1994, the
allowable period of separation was three years.)
Retirees under the Civil Service Retirement
System are entitled to a credit for the amount of unused sick
leave they’ve accumulated at the time of retirement for
purposes of calculating their service credits used in computing
retirement annuities. With one exception, this sick leave credit,
which has been effective since October 20, 1969, does not apply
to annuity calculations of employees covered by the Federal Employees
Retirement System. The exception is that those who transferred
to FERS with a CSRS annuity component may receive credit for the
amount of unused sick leave they had at the date of transfer or
the date of retirement, whichever is less.
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Restoration of Forfeited
Annual Leave
Agencies may restore annual leave that was
forfeited because it was in excess of the maximum leave ceilings
if the leave was forfeited because of an administrative error,
exigency of the public business, or sickness of the employee,
under Section 6304 (d) of Title 5, U.S.C. An agency must restore
the annual leave in a separate leave account.
The employing agency determines what constitutes
an administrative error, that an exigency is of major importance
and that excess annual leave cannot be used, or that the annual
leave was forfeited because of a period of absence due to an employee's
sickness or injury that occurred late in the leave year or was
of such duration that the excess annual leave could not be rescheduled
for use before the end of the leave year. (Note: Leave years do
not run concurrent with calendar years. Typically a leave year
ends a number of days into the succeeding calendar year.)
An agency typically may consider for restoration
annual leave that was forfeited due to an exigency of the public
business or sickness of the employee only if the annual leave
was scheduled in writing before the start of the third biweekly
pay period prior to the end of the leave year.
An employee must schedule and use restored
annual leave not later than the end of the leave year ending two
years after:
- the date of restoration of the annual
leave forfeited because of administrative error;
- the date fixed by the head of the agency
or designee as the date of termination of the exigency of the
public business; or
- the date the employee is determined to
be recovered from illness or injury and able to return to duty.
Restored annual leave that is not used within
the established time limits is forfeited with no further right
to restoration. Administrative error may not serve as the basis
to extend the time limit within which to use restored annual leave.
This is so even if the agency fails to establish a separate leave
account, fix the date for the expiration of the time limit, or
properly advise the employee regarding the rules for using restored
annual leave, absent agency regulations requiring otherwise.
On March 4, 2002, the Office of Personnel
Management issued in the Federal Register regulations to provide
that employees who forfeited excess annual leave because of their
work to support the nation during the national emergency declared
after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon were deemed to have scheduled their excess
annual leave in advance. Such employees were entitled to restoration
of their annual leave under the rules.
A similar grant of authority made in 1999
that permitted use or lose annual leave to be restored to employees
who were determined to be necessary to the Y2K conversion effort
expired at the end of leave year 2002.
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Lump-Sum Payments at Separation
or Retirement
Employees receive a lump-sum payment for accrued
annual leave when they separate from federal service or may elect
to receive a lump-sum payment when they enter on active duty with
the armed forces. Under the rules stipulated in 5 U.S.C. 5551,
the amount of this lump-sum payment must equal the pay employees
would have received if they had remained employed until their
annual leave ran out.
Generally, upon separation from federal employment,
employees are entitled to payment for annual leave credited to
their accounts, including the carry-over balance, the unused leave
accrued during the year, and any unused restored leave. In the
event of an employee’s death, survivors are entitled to
payment for all annual leave credited to the employee at time
of death. (Postal Service regulations provide for lump-sum payments
for unused accumulated annual leave, but place certain restrictions
upon payment for leave accrued during the year of separation.)
The types of pay included in a lump-sum payment
are those that an employee would have received on a biweekly basis
had he or she remained in federal service on annual leave, excluding
allowances that are paid for the sole purpose of encouraging an
employee to remain in government service. These are: basic pay;
locality pay or other similar geographic adjustment; within-grade
increase (if waiting period met on date of separation); across-the-board
annual adjustments; administratively uncontrollable overtime pay,
availability pay, and standby duty pay; night differential (for
wage system employees only); regularly scheduled overtime pay
under the Fair Labor Standards Act for employees on uncommon tours
of duty; supervisory differentials; non-foreign area cost-of-living
allowances and post differentials; and foreign area post allowances.
If a statutory pay adjustment becomes effective during the employee’s
lump-sum leave period, the lump sum is adjusted to reflect the
increased rate beginning on the effective date of the pay adjustment.
In calculating a lump-sum payment, an agency
projects forward an employee’s annual leave for all the
workdays the employee would have worked if he or she had remained
in federal service. By law, holidays are counted as workdays in
projecting the lump-sum leave period. If an employee is reemployed
in the federal service prior to the expiration of the period of
annual leave (i.e., the lump-sum leave period), he or she must
refund the portion of the lump-sum payment that represents the
period between the date of reemployment and the expiration of
the lump-sum period. An agency re-credits to the employee’s
leave account the amount of annual leave equal to the days or
hours of work remaining between the date of reemployment and the
expiration of the lump-sum leave period.
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SES Members: Annual Leave Rules
Members of the Senior Executive Service are
subject to special annual leave rules and procedures, most of
which became effective October 13, 1994, with enactment of Section
201 of the Government Management Reform Act of 1994 (GMRA), Public
Law 103-356.
Ninety-day (720 hour) Limit on Leave Accumulation—GMRA
established a new 90-day (720-hour) limit on the amount of annual
leave both current and future Senior Executive Service (SES) members
may carry over from one leave year to the next. Since the inception
of the Senior Executive Service, SES members had been exempt from
the normal annual leave accumulation ceilings of 30 days (240
hours) and 45 days (360 hours) applicable to most federal workers
and to overseas employees contained in 5 U.S.C. 6304. The law
did include a grandfather clause allowing current SES members
with accumulated annual leave balances in excess of 90 days to
retain their excess annual leave as their “personal leave
ceiling” (see below).
SES Personal Leave Ceiling—If
the amount of accrued leave and accumulated annual leave in an
SES member’s leave account as of October 13, 1994 was in
excess of 90 days, that amount became his or her personal leave
ceiling. Amounts of annual leave that are advanced or restored
to SES members are not included in their personal leave ceiling.
Restored annual leave is placed in a separate leave account and
must be used within a two-year period.
The personal leave ceiling is subject to reduction
under the rules in 5 U.S.C. 6304(c). An SES member’s personal
leave ceiling must be reduced by the number of hours used in excess
of the number of hours earned during the previous year. Once the
personal leave ceiling falls below 90 days (720 hours), it is
eliminated and the SES member becomes subject to the 90-day (720-hour)
limit.
“Use or Lose” Leave—If
an SES member begins a new leave year with 720 or more hours of
annual leave and earns more annual leave than used in that leave
year, the excess leave hours will be forfeited at the beginning
of the succeeding leave year. All SES members are subject to the
“use or lose” rules for the forfeiture of excess annual
leave under 5 CFR 630.302 for any leave earned and not used in
a leave year that is in excess of the new 720-hour ceiling. Thus,
SES members who have 1,000 hours as a personal leave ceiling at
the start of a leave year and earn 100 hours more than they use
in that year will lose those 100 hours, and their personal leave
ceiling will remain at 1,000 hours at the beginning of the next
leave year.
SES members are eligible for the temporary
restoration (normally for two years) of annual leave forfeited
because of exigencies of the public business or sickness, as described
above.
Lump-sum Payments at Separation or
Retirement—At the time of an SES member’s
separation or retirement, all unused accrued annual leave is payable
as a lump-sum at the rate of pay in effect. If an SES pay adjustment
becomes effective during the employee’s lump-sum leave period,
the lump-sum payment is adjusted to reflect the increased rate
beginning on the effective date of the pay adjustment.
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Holidays
Government workers are entitled to the following
ten regular holidays each year:
- New Year’s Day, January 1
- Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, 3rd Monday in January
- Washington's Birthday, 3rd Monday in February
- Memorial Day, last Monday in May
- Independence Day, July 4
- Labor Day, 1st Monday in September
- Columbus Day, 2nd Monday in October
- Veterans Day, November 11
- Thanksgiving Day, 4th Thursday in November
- Christmas Day, December 25
For a listing of this year's holidays, click
here.
By law, this holiday is designated as "Washington's
Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the U. S. C.,
which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees.
Other institutions, such as state and local governments and private
businesses, may use other names.
When Inauguration Day falls within the regularly
scheduled tour of duty of an employee in the Metropolitan Washington,
D.C., area, it is observed as a holiday. There is no provision
for an “in lieu of” day when an employee is not scheduled
to work on Inauguration Day.
When a holiday falls on a non-workday outside
a full-time employee’s 40-hour basic workweek or the employee’s
basic work requirement for the week, the day to be treated as
the employee’s holiday is the workday immediately preceding
the non-workday. There are four exceptions:
(1) |
When the non-workday is Sunday (or “in
lieu” of Sunday), the next workday is the “in
lieu of” holiday; |
(2) |
There is no provision in law for an “in lieu”
of holiday if Inauguration Day falls on a non-workday; and |
(3) |
Under Public Law 104-201, an agency head may issue rules
under which a different “in lieu of” holiday may
be designated than would otherwise be required for full-time
employees under compressed work schedules. These rules would
be issued when the head of the agency determines that a different
“in lieu of” holiday is necessary to prevent an
adverse agency impact, as defined in 5 U.S.C. 6131(b) (This
authority became effective on September 23, 1996.); and |
(4) |
Whenever Monday is designated as a holiday, the first regularly
scheduled workday in the week is the holiday for a federal
employee working overseas whose basic workweek includes Monday
but is not the typical Monday through Friday work schedule
found in the United States. This has the effect of providing
three-day weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) for employees
working overseas whose basic workweek is Sunday through Thursday.
This authority became effective on October 17, 1998. |
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Time Off as an Incentive
Federal employees are eligible for paid time
off as an incentive. Agencies may grant employees time off from
duty, without loss of pay or charge to leave, to recognize excellent
employee performance.
Agencies may grant time-off awards alone or
in combination with monetary or non-monetary awards to recognize
the same kinds of employee contributions. Time-off awards are
not intended to replace other awards.
Agencies may choose to exclude certain categories
of employees from eligibility for time-off incentives (for example,
SES members or intermittent employees). However, unless agencies
make such an exclusion, all federal employees who meet the definition
of employee under 5 U.S.C. 2105 are eligible for time-off awards.
Similarly, agencies may choose to restrict the kinds of contributions
that time-off awards will be used to recognize.
If a scale of benefits is used, agencies are
to avoid creating an equivalency between time-off awards and cash
awards. Under no circumstances may a time-off award be converted
to a cash payment.
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Keep Track of Your Leave
You may use one of these printable calendars
to keep track of the leave you use during 2009.
For More Information
You may obtain more information about paid and unpaid leave
in the current edition of the Federal
Employees Almanac. |
