Washington, D.C. 20530

December 31, 2002

MEMORANDUM FOR BUREAU PERSONNEL OFFICERS

This is intended to clarify and reiterate the Department's policy for granting employees who are posted overseas administrative leave for local holidays. The Department's policy on this matter may be found in DOJ Order 1630.1B (Available on the DOJ Intranet), "Leave Administration," dated July 22, 1991, in Chapter 14, paragraph 92.a (4). General policy concerning authority to grant administrative leave is stated in a memorandum from the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Administration on "Proper Use of Administrative Leave," dated September 27, 2002.

Specifically, excused absence may be authorized for groups of employees at an installation overseas when work may not be properly performed because of a local holiday. When such holidays occur, employees must actually be prevented from working by one of the following circumstances:

1. The building or office in which the employees work is physically closed, or building services essential to proper performance of work are not operating.



2. Local transportation services are discontinued or interrupted to the point where employees are prevented from reporting to their work location.



3. The duties of the employees consist largely of dealing directly with employees and officials of local establishments which are closed in observance of the holiday and there are no other duties (consistent with their normal duties) to which the employees can be assigned on the holiday.

If the above criteria can be met, administrative leave may be granted to employees without the need to request permission to do so in writing.

Questions from human resources specialists on this matter may be directed to Margaret Foskey, of the Personnel Staff's Policy Group, on (202) 514-6778 or via e-mail at Margaret.Foskey2@usdoj.gov. Employees who have questions on this policy should be directed to an appropriate person in their servicing human resources office for assistance. In addition, both the Department's leave order and the memorandum cited above may be found on the Personnel Staff's Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ps.

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