Comments on a Proposed Addition to the Federal Personnel Manual

Comments were requested on a proposed addition to the Federal Personnel Manual as it applies to military leave for military reservists and National Guardsmen. The amendment would change legislation which provides that military leave accrues on a fiscal year basis at the rate of 15 days per fiscal year, that the accrued but unused leave could be carried into the succeeding fiscal year not to exceed 15 days at the beginning of the year, and that part-time career employees are entitled to accrue leave on a prorated basis. Employees who were erroneously charged annual leave or leave without pay for military leave by agencies at the time that Public Law 96-431 was enacted should be made aware of their entitlement to military leave and, if they request an adjustment, it should be granted. It should be pointed out that only full-time employees are to be credited with 15 days' military leave. Part-time employees are only eligible to a prorated share of 15 days based on the number of hours they worked in the regularly scheduled workweek. Temporary employees with appointments of 1 year or more are entitled to military leave, but employees with appointments of less than 1 year are not. The amendment should be clarified to include employees with temporary appointments not to exceed 1 year in the category of those employees who are not entitled to military leave. Under the new provision, a part-time employee who works 20 hours a week could be eligible for 7.5 days of military leave, but would have to be charged annual leave or leave without pay for every day he is on duty in excess of the 7 days. GAO has no objection to this form of computation since employees could carry over fractional leave to accrue a full day's leave through adding fractional days over a period of years. The method suggested by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for computing military leave when a part-time employee changes his tour of duty within a fiscal year is cumbersome and did not appear to result in equal treatment for part-time employees. A legislative change is proposed by OPM to provide for averaging the number of hours worked in a cycle by part-time employees to calculate entitlement to military leave and states that expressing fractions of days as a result of applying the formula is an optional procedure. GAO feels that the amendment should indicate that, in computing the military leave entitlement for part-time employees, expressing fractions of days is mandatory, not optional.