If an employee receiving a recruitment or relocation incentive in installment payments goes into non-pay or paid leave status during the course of the service agreement, should the agency continue the incentive installment payments? Are hours in a paid leave or leave without pay status creditable towards the completion of a service agreement?
Under 5 CFR 575.110(f) and 575.210(f), agencies may address the extent to which periods of time in a nonpay status or in a paid leave status (or paid time off status) are creditable toward the completion of an incentive service period and to determine whether recruitment or relocation incentive installment payments will continue as scheduled while an employee is in a non-pay status or paid leave status, with the exception of an employee who is on military leave without pay. An employee who is absent because of uniformed service is generally entitled upon reemployment to be treated as though he or she had never left. (See 5 CFR 353.107.) This means that a person who is reemployed following uniformed service receives credit for the entire period of the absence for the purpose of rights and benefits based upon seniority and length of service, including within-grade increases, career tenure, completion of probation, leave rate accrual, and severance pay. Therefore, the period of military LWOP is creditable toward the completion of a recruitment or relocation incentive service period, and scheduled recruitment or relocation installment payments specified in the service agreement must continue during the period of military LWOP.
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