Reminder--Scheduling Use or Lose Leave Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 13:56:27 -0500 To: "USGS Employees" From: "Jeanne M. Placanica" Subject: Reminder - Scheduling Use or Lose Leave In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 601 MEMORANDUM To: USGS Employees From: William E. Fordyce Acting Personnel Officer Subject: Reminder--Scheduling Use or Lose Leave This is a reminder to employees and supervisors to schedule any use or lose leave in writing by November 21. Employees who are out on extended sick leave should schedule their use or lose leave, even if they will not be able to return to duty before January 2, 1998, in order to protect their entitlement to have the leave restored. January 3, 1998, is the end of the 1997 leave year, and all employees should have scheduled their use or lose leave by now. If you have not done so, a further delay could result in the forfeiture of any unused leave. The law permits forfeited leave to be restored under certain limited conditions: the leave must have been scheduled in writing before the end of the third pay period prior to the end of the leave year (November 22, 1997, for the current leave year); the supervisor must have canceled the approved leave because of urgent workload requirements; and circumstances must preclude the rescheduling of the leave before the end of the leave year. Forfeited leave may also be restored if it has been scheduled and the employee's illness precludes using the leave. If urgent workload requirements (as determined by the supervisor) or illness require you to forfeit leave which has been scheduled in advance, and you are not able to reschedule it by January 3, 1998, you may file a claim to have the leave restored. You should prepare a memorandum requesting restoration of the leave, submit it to your supervisor for certification, and send it through your division channels to the Office of Personnel, 601 National Center, Reston, Virginia 20192, no later than March 2, 1998. Requests for leave restoration received after March 2 will be returned with no action taken.Claims must include the following documentation: 1. The employee's written request to use the annual leave which is dated prior to November 22, 1997, and which includes the dates that the leave was scheduled to be used and the total hours involved. If the leave request fails to include all of the leave in excess of the maximum carryover, that part of the forfeited leave which was not included in the schedule cannot be restored. 2. In the case of urgent workload requirements, the supervisor's denial or cancellation of the leave; and a statement from the supervisor explaining the reason for denying or cancelling the leave and why the leave could not be rescheduled before the end of the leave year to avoid forfeiture. The specific beginning and ending dates of the urgent workload requirement during which the employee was prevented from using annual leave must be included. 3. In the case of illness, a statement from the supervisor showing the date the employee returned to active duty and the reason why the annual leave could not be rescheduled before the end of the leave year to avoid forfeiture. Note that a request for leave lost due to illness should not be submitted before the employee returns to duty. Since you should make every attempt to reschedule canceled leave before the end of the leave year, you should not submit requests for restoration until after January 3, 1998. If you have use or lose leave which you do not expect to use before the end of the leave year, you may wish to consider donating it to another employee through the leave sharing program. Because the USGS is not authorized to maintain a bank for storing donated leave, donations must be made to a specific leave recipient. You may call your servicing personnel office to obtain the names of current recipients if you do not personally know of a recipient, or to ask to be notified if a fellow employee submits a request to be a recipient. We urge you not to wait until the end of the leave year to indicate an interest in donating use or lose leave. Regulations limit the amount of leave that may be donated to no more than the number of hours remaining in the leave year for which you are scheduled to work, so that if you wait until the end of the year, you may not be able to donate as much as you would like. In addition, personnel and payroll offices need to process requests to donate leave and complete the transfer of leave from one account to another prior to the end of the leave year. Please call your servicing personnel office if you have any questions about the leave sharing program or about requirements for scheduling leave or requesting restoration of canceled leave.