Scheduling Use or Lose Annual Leave

In Reply Refer To:                           November 13, 2000
Mail Stop 601

                       MEMORANDUM


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


To:    All U.S. Geological Survey Employees

From:  Robert Hosenfeld  (signed)
          Personnel Officer

Subject:  Scheduling Use or Lose Annual Leave 

This is a reminder to use all annual leave in excess of your maximum 
carryover by the end of the leave year.  For most general schedule 
employees, the maximum carryover is 240 hours.  The maximum carryover for 
most senior executives is 720 hours.  Annual leave should be scheduled 
throughout the year to avoid being in an excessive use or lose situation; 
however, it must be scheduled not later than December 1, 2000.  Employees 
on extended sick leave must also request approval in writing to protect 
their entitlement to restoration.  You may use excess leave through 
January 13, 2001. 

ALTERNATIVE USE OF "USE OR LOSE" LEAVE:  DON'T LOSE WHAT YOU'VE EARNED ? 
DONATE IT 

If you are unable to use all of your annual leave, please consider 
donating your excess leave to an employee approved for our Leave Sharing 
Program.  This program allows you to donate annual leave to assist other 
employees who have personal or family emergencies and who have exhausted 
their own leave.  You can view the current list of eligible employees at 
http://www.usgs.gov:8888/ops/hro/benefits/famlv/program.html. 
If annual leave is forfeited at the end of the leave year, the following 
conditions must be met before it will be considered for restoration: 
·       leave must have been scheduled and approved in writing before the 
end of 
the third pay period prior to the end of the leave year, December 1, 2000; 

·       the supervisor must have canceled the approved leave because of an 
"exigency of the public business" or the employee must have been unable to 
use the leave due to illness; 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.  If your supervisor must cancel or deny your 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 you to use 
as much of the leave as possible before January 13, 2001. 
Annual leave forfeited under the above conditions may be restored at the 
beginning of the new 2001 leave year and, generally, must be used by the 
end of the second leave year after restoration (i.e., restored in leave 
year 2000 to be used by the end of leave year 2002). Restored leave still 
remaining to the employee's credit at the end of this period will be 
forfeited without the right to further restoration. 

Questions should be directed to your servicing personnel office.