U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

CPM 2006-14

November 21, 2006

MEMORANDUM FOR HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTORS

Two Federal holidays—Christmas Day, Monday, December 25, 2006, and New Year's Day, Monday, January 1, 2007—both fall within the same pay period, which begins on December 24, 2006, and ends on January 6, 2007. The pay and leave procedures for these two holidays are addressed below.

Pay and Leave Rules for Christmas Day and New Year's Day

Christmas Day and New Year's Day are legal public holidays for pay and leave purposes for Federal employees. Full-time and part-time employees are entitled to the same pay they otherwise would receive on a regular workday. Employees who are regularly scheduled to work on one or both of these days are entitled to time off with pay for the scheduled holiday. Employees who are required to work one or both of these days are entitled to holiday premium pay for the number of hours in their regular tour of duty. Full-time employees who are not regularly scheduled to work on one or both days are entitled to a day off in lieu of the holiday. Part-time employees are not entitled to an "in lieu of" holiday. However, if an agency's office or facility is closed due to an "in lieu of" holiday for full-time employees, the agency may grant excused absence (administrative leave) to part-time employees who are otherwise scheduled to work on that day.

Employees must be in a pay status or a paid time off status (i.e., leave, compensatory time off, compensatory time off for travel, or credit hours) on their scheduled workdays either before or after a holiday in order to be entitled to their regular pay for that day.

Employees on Alternative Work Schedules

Since Christmas Day and New Year's Day both fall within the same pay period, the holidays will affect employees who are on alternative work schedules (i.e., flexible or compressed work schedules). A full-time employee on a flexible work schedule is entitled to 8 hours of pay for each holiday when he or she does not work. However, a full-time employee on a 5/4-9 flexible schedule (or another flexible schedule under which he or she works more than 8 hours a day) must make arrangements to work extra hours during other regularly scheduled workdays (or take annual leave or use credit hours, compensatory time off, or compensatory time off for travel) in order to fulfill the 80-hour biweekly work requirement. On a holiday, employees on compressed work schedules are generally excused from all nonovertime hours they would otherwise work on that day and which apply to their "basic work requirement." For example, if a holiday falls on a 9- or 10-hour basic workday, the employee's holiday is 9 or 10 hours, respectively.

For Additional Information

For additional information, see OPM's fact sheet on Federal holidays at http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/HOLIDAY.asp. You may contact your assigned OPM Human Capital Officer for additional information. Employees should contact their agency human resources offices for assistance.