Washington, D.C. 20530

December 13, 2001

MEMORANDUM FOR BUREAU PERSONNEL OFFICERS

President Bush has excused most executive branch Federal employees from duty on December 24, 2001, and directed that the day be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes. Attached for your information are the President's Executive Order and the implementing instructions prepared by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

In previous years when the President ordered that a non-holiday should be designated as a holiday, we found that the following points were of interest:

• Employees who have previously scheduled December 24, 2001, as a day of "use or lose" annual leave will forfeit that annual leave unless it can be rescheduled before the leave year ends on January 12, 2002 (there is no provision which allows such forfeited leave to be restored).



• Full-time employees whose basic work week does not include December 24, 2001, are entitled to an "in lieu of" holiday (generally on the preceding scheduled work day).



• Employees on a compressed work schedule (CWS) who do not work because of the holiday will receive their rate of basic pay for the number of hours in their CWS on the holiday.



• To prevent adverse agency impact, management officials who have delegated authority to approve a CWS also have delegated authority to reschedule an "in lieu of" holiday for full-time employees on CWS (5 U.S.C. 6103 (d)(2)).



• Time keepers should enter transaction code 66 on time sheets for December 24, 2001. Transaction code 66 covers other leave, including Federal holidays.

Additional information may be found in the following fact sheets on the OPM web site:

• Federal holidays       www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/HOLIDAY.HTM



• Compressed work schedules       www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/AWScws.htm



• Flexible work schedules       www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/awsfws.htm

Members of your staff who require assistance concerning these matters should contact the Personnel Staff's Policy Group on (202) 514-6778. Questions concerning pay and hours of work should be directed to John Cahill, and those concerning leave administration should be directed to Margaret Foskey. Employees who have questions about the designation of December 24 as a holiday, and how it will affect them personally, should contact the appropriate person in their servicing personnel offices.

Attachment 1
Attachment 2

cc:   Melinda Morgan, HRSAG

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