Advance Scheduling of "Use or Lose" Leave

Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 11:29:53 -0400
To: "USGS Employees"
From: Sharon Salpini 
Subject: Advance Scheduling of "Use or Lose" Leave

Supervisors, Managers, and Team Leaders:  Please ensure that employees
without access to e-mail receive a copy of the message.


In Reply Refer To:
Mail Stop 601


                                   MEMORANDUM


To:       All U.S. Geological Survey Employees

From:     Joyce D. Pieritz
          Acting Personnel Officer

Subject:  Advance Scheduling of "Use or Lose" Leave

January 1, 2000, is the end of the 1999 leave year.  Employees and
supervisors should schedule any use or lose annual leave in writing by
November 20, 1999, to avoid forfeiture.  Employees on extended sick leave
must also request approval in writing, even if they do not expect to return
to duty before January 1, 2000, in order to protect their entitlement to
restored 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 20,
1999); the supervisor must have canceled the approved leave because of an
"exigency of the public business"; and circumstances must preclude the
rescheduling of the leave before the end of the leave year.  Exigency of
the public business means an urgent workload or significant operational
demand that is so great that the employee cannot be excused from duty.
Forfeited leave may also be restored if it has been scheduled and the
employee's illness precludes using the leave.  If a supervisor must cancel
or deny an employee's lose or use annual 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 1, 2000.

There is an exception to the requirement for advance scheduling of annual
leave this year for those employees who will face forfeiture of use or lose
annual leave because of Y2K computer conversion efforts.  Y2K efforts are
deemed to be an exigency of the public business so any annual leave
forfeited by an employee working on these efforts is considered to have
been scheduled in advance for restoration purposes.  This exigency
terminates on January 31, 2000. Annual leave restored because of the Y2K
conversion exigency must be scheduled and used not later than the end of
leave year 2002.   

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 1, 2000, or you meet the
critieria under the Y2K conversion efforts, you may file a claim to have
the leave restored.  Restored leave requests are approved at the
division/office level; therefore, you should contact your Administrative
Office for further information regarding the process for submission of
claims.  

Please call your servicing personnel office if you have any questions about
the requirements for scheduling leave.