On January 23, 2019, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued the following guidance to agencies currently shuttered: UPDATED (1/23/2019) FACT SHEET: Pay and Benefits Information for Employees Affected by the Lapse in Appropriations and Telework and other Workplace Flexibilities for Excepted Employees during a Lapse in Appropriations.
In two separate memorandums to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, OPM has modified its shutdown guidance regarding leave. In this most recent update, OPM advises agencies:
“An excepted employee may request approval to use paid leave instead of being placed in a furlough status during an authorized absence from work. However, compensation for such leave is still not payable until after the lapse in appropriations […] Use of paid leave under this special authority is subject to normal rules for the applicable leave program, including leave request and approval procedures.”
In OPM’s Telework and Workplace Flexibilities memorandum, Acting OPM Director Weichert exhorts the following: “to the extent possible and appropriate, for agencies to provide additional flexibility to the Federal civil servants who are excepted from the furlough to perform necessary functions for the American people. As a result, OPM would like to remind agencies of the various workplace flexibilities available to employees. OPM strongly encourages agencies to be as accommodating as possible during the current lapse in appropriations to allow telework-eligible employees performing excepted duties to telework more frequently, permit flexible start and stop times under a flexible work schedule, and provide employees with the ability to request time off based on their personal circumstances.”
All in all, excepted employees may request the use of paid leave during the shutdown, however, they will not be paid for that leave until funds are appropriated by Congress. Moreover, for excepted employees whose absence from work during the shutdown is excused, but where leave had not been requested, those hours will be considered furlough hours, and employees will receive retroactive pay once funds are appropriated.
According to the good folks at Government Executive; the updated guidance seems “marked a sudden reversal from OPM and the Trump administration, which just days ago directed agencies to label any employee who did not show up to work to be labeled as ‘absent without leave.’ OPM instructed agencies to ‘apply appropriate consequences’ when placing employees in AWOL status after they called out.”
Additional information relating to OPM’s UPDATED (1/23/2019) FACT SHEET: Pay and Benefits Information for Employees Affected by the Lapse in Appropriations can be found at: https://chcoc.gov/content/fact-sheet-pay-and-benefits-information-employees-affected-lapse-appropriations. Information relating to OPM’s Telework and other Workplace Flexibilities for Excepted Employees during a Lapse in Appropriations can be found at: https://chcoc.gov/content/telework-and-other-workplace-flexibilities-excepted-employees-during-lapse-appropriations.
