Presidential Order Excuses Federal Workers on Christmas Eve

Federal workers can take Christmas Eve off. President Barack Obama on Friday signed an Executive Order than mandates all non-essential federal employees not come into their offices on Monday.

The mandate states employees will receive regular pay as if they had worked the entire day, and if the employee had scheduled to take off Christmas Eve, that employee will not be charged with annual leave.

More in a press release from the Office of Personnel Management:

Most employees who are excused from duty on December 24th will receive the basic pay they would have received if no Executive order had been issued. An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave on December 24th will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours). (This policy does not apply to employees who receive annual premium pay for standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1) or to firefighters who are covered by the special pay provisions of 5 U.S.C. 5545b.) An employee who is required to work nonovertime hours on December 24th is entitled to holiday premium pay under 5 U.S.C. 5546(b).

If an employee has scheduled “use or lose” annual leave for December 24, 2012, and is unable to reschedule that leave for use before the end of the leave year (i.e., for most employees, January 12, 2013), the leave will be forfeited. When “use or lose” leave is forfeited under these conditions, the law does not permit restoration of the leave. (See 5 U.S.C. 6304(d).)

The attached questions and answers provide pay and leave administration guidance. (See Attachment 2.) For additional information, see the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM’s) fact sheets on —

• Federal Holidays – Work Schedules and Pay

• Compressed Work Schedules

• Flexible Work Schedules

 

The President’s Executive order excuses Federal employees from duty during a pay period in which multiple holidays fall within the same pay period. For further information on the procedures for multiple holidays during a pay period, see the attached questions and answers and the fact sheet “Federal Holidays – Work Schedules and Pay” referenced above.

Employees of the U.S. Postal Service and contract employees should contact their supervisor (or contract officer) to obtain information on their pay and leave entitlements for December 24th.