Special selection priority provisions for surplus or displaced Federal employees fall under a Career Transition Assistance Plan or CTAP.
If you are currently an employee who has received a Reduction in Force separation notice, a Certificate of Expected Separation, or notice of proposed separation for declining a directed reassignment or transfer of function outside of the local commuting area or other appropriate agency Transition Assistance Plan. To receive this priority consideration you must:
Be a current Department of Energy career or career-conditional (tenure group I or II) competitive service employee who has received a RIF separation notice, a Certificate of Expected Separation, or notice of proposed separation for declining a directed reassignment or transfer of function outside of the local commuting area, and you are still on the rolls of DOE. You must submit a copy of the RIF notice, CES, or notice of proposed separation with your application.
Be applying for a position that is at or below the grade level of the position from which you are being separated. The position must not have a greater promotion potential than the position from which you are being separated.
Have a current (or last) performance rating of record of at least fully successful or equivalent. This must be submitted with your application package.
Be currently employed by the Department of Energy in the same commuting area of the position for which you are requesting selection priority.
File your application by the closing date of the vacancy announcement and meet all the application criteria (e.g., submit all required documentation, etc.).
Be rated well-qualified for the position. To be rated "well-qualified," CTAP applicants must attain an eligibility rating on this examination of 85 or higher, not including points for veterans' preference. If category rating procedures are used, you must be in the "Best Qualified" category (if there are 2 quality categories) or the "Best Qualified" or "Highly Qualified" category (if there are 3 quality categories). DOE Priority Selection Program requirements are as follows:
Eligible participants must have received an official notice of expected separation, must apply for positions in which they wish to be selected, and must provide a copy of their written notice to the servicing HR office per the requirements of the vacancy announcement.
Priority Selection under this Program pertains to: - Eligible GS employees may apply for GS positions at their current grade or up to 3 lower grades in their same series, in other series for which they are qualified, or in a series in which they can become qualified within 90 days after being placed in that position.
- Eligible EJ employees that previously held a career or career conditional position may apply for GS positions in the competitive service for which they are qualified at the same GS grade level previously held or up to 3 lower grades.
- Eligible EJ employees may apply for EJ, EK or EN positions for which they are qualified at their current or lower pay bands.
Upon closing date of the announcement, the HR Specialist will first prepare and forward to the selecting official a certificate that contains only the qualified Priority Selection Program eligible(s) who applied for that position.
If a priority consideration eligible is found not qualified for any pertinent positions in 2) above, they will be informed immediately by the servicing HR Specialist of such a determination and that they have 2 working days to appeal that determination. The appeal will be by e-mail to DOE's Director of Human Capital Management (Sara Bonilla) with a copy to the HC points of contact: Michelle Tyson and Antoinette Hawkins in HC-10, and Western's servicing HR Manager (Frances Telles). The Director of Human Capital Management will render a decision on the determination within 3 working days. The selecting official cannot make a decision on the selection until a decision has been made on the appeal, unless another Priority Selection Program eligible is selected.
Selecting officials must make a selection from the Priority Selection Program Eligibles certificate for the position they wish to fill. If the selecting official does not think that any of the Priority Consideration Program eligibles are qualified, or will not be able to be qualified within 90 days after assuming the position, the selecting official must provide a written justification to bypass the eligible(s), and receive approval from DOE's Director of Human Capital Management before being provided any certificates containing candidates outside of this Priority Selection Program.
Eligibility for this Priority Selection Program is immediately terminated once an eligible accepts an offer or declines 2 offers. All information about Priority Selection Program eligibles and their status will be maintained by HC-10 on the Priority Selection Program Eligibility List in iPortal.
HC-10 points of contact will send confirmation e-mails to all DOE HR Directors, their designated iPortal back-ups as well as the RW employee when eligibility in the program has been terminated.
DOE Priority Selection Program eligibility for all candidates terminates upon official separation date under the Reduction-in-Force.
There will be no lateral reassignments of any RW GS employee to other positions within DOE without first posting a merit promotion announcement in USAJobs for at least 7 calendar days limited to RW employees. This is to ensure that all qualified RW employees have knowledge and receive fair consideration for all vacant positions within DOE.
