[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 1, Parts 1 to 699]
[Revised as of January 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR351.201]

[Page 243-244]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
 
PART 351--REDUCTION IN FORCE--Table of Contents
 
                      Subpart B--General Provisions
 
Sec. 351.201  Use of regulations.


    (a)(1) Each agency is responsible for determining the categories 
within which positions are required, where they are to be located, and 
when they are to be filled, abolished, or vacated. This includes 
determining when there is a surplus of employees at a particular 
location in a particular line of work.
    (2) Each agency shall follow this part when it releases a competing 
employee from his or her competitive level by furlough for more than 30 
days, separation, demotion, or reassignment requiring displacement, when 
the release is required because of lack of work; shortage of funds; 
insufficient personnel ceiling; reorganization; the exercise of 
reemployment rights or restoration rights; or reclassification of an 
employee's position die to erosion of duties when such action will take 
effect after an agency has formally announced a reduction in force in 
the employee's competitive area and when the reduction in force will 
take effect within 180 days.

[[Page 244]]

    (b) This part does not require an agency to fill a vacant position. 
However, when an agency, at its discretion, chooses to fill a vacancy by 
an employee who has been reached for release from a competitive level 
for one of the reasons in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, this part 
shall be followed.
    (c) Each agency is responsible for assuring that the provisions in 
this part are uniformly and consistently applied in any one reduction in 
force.
    (d) An agency authorized to administer foreign national employee 
programs under section 408 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 
3968) may include special plans for reduction in force in its foreign 
national employee programs. In these special plans an agency may give 
effect to the labor laws and practices of the locality of employment by 
supplementing the selection factors in subparts D and E of this part to 
the extent consistent with the public interest. Subpart I of this part 
does not apply to actions taken under the special plans authorized by 
this paragraph.