Senior federal employees get additional leave
Another facet of the 2004 Federal Workforce Flexibility Act has been codified with regulations from OPM.
The Office of Personnel Management issued interim regulations this week that allow members of the Senior Executive Service to earn about five weeks of leave each year, regardless of how long they have served in government.
The move affects federal employees in "senior-level and scientific or professional positions," according to the interim regulations. The new leave accrual rate also applies to employees in the Senior Foreign Service, the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, the Senior Cryptologic Executive Service, the FBI's Senior Executive Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration Senior Executive Service and the Senior Intelligence Service.
Agency heads can ask OPM to include other Title 5 employees who are deemed to be in equivalent pay systems. OPM officials have approved Defense Department "highly qualified experts" who are paid under Title 5 and Defense Intelligence "senior level employees" paid under Title 10. The regulations suggested that this designation could be extended to employees such as high-level specialized assistants or senior attorneys in specialized fields.
The regulations represent another reform brought on by the 2004 Federal Workforce Flexibility Act. That legislation-which was designed to improve recruitment and retention of top federal workers-also brought compensatory time off for travel to the government in January.
Under the interim regulations, SES members and equivalent employees will accrue one day-eight hours-of annual leave during each biweekly pay period. The new policy took effect immediately when the law was passed, and agencies will be responsible for granting retroactive annual leave. According to OPM, personnel officials should grant the extra leave beginning with the pay period of Oct. 17-30, 2004.
The public comment period on the new regulations will last until May 20. Comments can be sent to Donald J. Winstead, the deputy associate director for pay and performance policy in OPM's Strategic Human Resources Policy Division, by fax at (202) 606-0824 or by e-mail at pay-performance-policy@opm.gov.
The regulations affect all relevant employees equally-regardless of their tenure in the federal workforce.