Advance Scheduling of "Use or Lose" Leave Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 07:36:41 -0400 To: "USGS Employees" From: Joyce Pieritz Subject: Advance Scheduling of Use or Lose Leave In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 601 MEMORANDUM To: All Supervisors From: Robert Hosenfeld Personnel Officer Subject: Advance Scheduling of "Use or Lose" Leave Supervisors have an affirmative responsibility to ensure that all employees, even those involved in critical assignments, have an opportunity to use the leave to which they are entitled each year, even if the workload has to be redistributed or priorities shifted. Supervisors should also encourage their subordinates to schedule leave throughout the leave year and not hold it all until the end of the leave year. You should begin now to work with those of your employees who have leave subject to forfeiture to develop a leave schedule that will permit them to use this leave. Most claims for restored leave are based on forfeiture caused by "exigency of the public business." The law provides that forfeited leave can be restored when it has been scheduled in advance; when it is canceled or denied by management because of an urgent workload requirement or significant operational demand; and when that requirement or demand is so great that the employee cannot be excused from duty. The issue of urgent workload requirement is not one of employee choice; the decision to deny or cancel leave must be made by the supervisor, who should carefully consider whether the employee's presence on the job is required or whether the work can be accomplished by another employee or at another time. A decision that workload requirements or operational demands are so significant or urgent that it is absolutely essential that the employee be at work should not be made lightly. If a supervisor must cancel or deny an employee's "lose or lose" leave, and the workload subsequently permits rescheduling of some or all of that leave, the supervisor must make every attempt to permit the employee to use as much of the leave as possible before January 2, 1999. The deadline for scheduling annual leave to avoid forfeiture is the beginning of the third pay period prior to the end of the leave year, which this year is November 22, 1998, to use the leave by the end of the leave year, which is January 2, 1999. Employees on extended sick leave must also request approval in writing by the above date, even if they do not expect to return to duty before January 2, 1999. The approved scheduling of the leave in writing protects the employee should he/she become ill or the supervisor cancel the leave for an exigency of the public business. Information about leave restoration procedures will be forwarded at a later date. Please call your servicing personnel office if you have any questions about the requirements for scheduling leave.