[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 67 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17655-17656]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-8597]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 67 / Friday, April 7, 1995 / Proposed
Rules
[[Page 17655]]
OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
5 CFR Part 316
RIN 3206-AG 62
Bringing Nonpermanent Excepted Positions Into the Competitive
Service
AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) proposes to revise
its regulations governing retention of employees whose excepted
positions are brought into the competitive service to permit the
employees to receive term appointments if their excepted appointments
had time limits longer than 1 year. This would avoid hardship to the
employees, who could otherwise be retained only as temporary employees
without benefits.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before June 6, 1995.
ADDRESSES: Send or deliver written comments to Leonard R. Klein,
Associate Director for Employment, Office of Personnel Management, Room
6F08, 1900 E Street NW., Washington, DC 20415.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Tracy E. Spencer, (202) 606-0830, or fax (202) 606-2329.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Civil Service Rule III (5 CFR 3.1)
authorizes OPM to prescribe conditions under which ``a person who
occupies a permanent position when it is placed in the competitive
service * * * or is otherwise made subject to competitive examination''
may acquire a competitive status. OPM's regulations implementing this
authority are found in 5 CFR 315.701, 316.701, and 316.702. Those
regulations permit nonpermanent employees whose positions are brought
into the competitive service to be retained only under temporary
appointments limited to 1 year or less.
When the regulations were written, almost all nonpermanent
positions inside and outside the Federal Government were filled by such
temporary appointments. Giving those employees temporary appointments
in the competitive service permitted them to continue serving, with no
change in employment conditions, until they completed the work for
which they were hired. That is still generally true when positions are
brought into the service from outside the Federal Government.
In the Federal excepted service, however, an increasing number of
excepted positions are filled under appointments with time limits
longer than 1 year (comparable to term appointments in the competitive
service). Those positions may be brought into the competitive service
by revocation of a statutory appointing authority or an exception under
Schedule A, B, or C, or by an OPM determination that the authority no
longer covers the positions.
Employees whose excepted appointments have limits longer than 1
year are eligible for within-grade increases, promotions and
reassignments, and retirement and insurance benefits that are not
available to temporary employees in the competitive service. The
logical way to allow those employees to complete their work with no
change in employment conditions would be to retain them under term
appointments. The proposed regulations would add provision for such
term appointments. The regulations would also make editorial changes
and would remove obsolete references to the Federal Personnel Manual.
Regulatory Flexibility Act
I certify that these regulations will not have a significant
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities (including
small businesses, small organizational units, and small governmental
jurisdictions) because they apply only to Federal employees.
List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 316
Government employees.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
James B. King,
Director.
Accordingly, OPM proposes to amend 5 CFR part 316 as follows:
PART 316--TEMPORARY AND TERM EMPLOYMENT
1. The authority citation for part 316 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 5 U.S.C. 3301, 3302, and E.O. 10577 (3 CFR 1954-1958
Comp., p. 218); Sec. 316.302 also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3304(c), 38
U.S.C. 2014, and E.O. 12362, as revised by E.O. 12585; Sec. 316.402
also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3304(c) and 3312, 22 U.S.C. 2506 (93
Stat. 371), E.O. 12137, 38 U.S.C. 2014, and E.O. 12362, as revised
by E.O. 12585 and E.O. 12721.
2. In Sec. 316.701, paragraph (c) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 316.701 Public or private enterprise taken over by the
Government.
* * * * *
(c) An agency may retain an employee under paragraph (a) of this
section in a position that it determines is noncontinuing under a
temporary appointment. That appointment may be made for a period not to
exceed 1 year and will be subject to the time limits set out in
Sec. 316.402.
3. In Sec. 316.702, paragraphs (b)(1) and (c) are revised and a new
paragraph (d) is added to read as follows:
Sec. 316.702 Excepted positions brought into the competitive service.
* * * * *
(b)(1) When an agency retains an employee under paragraph (a) of
this section who was serving in an excepted position under an
indefinite appointment or an appointment without time limit, the agency
may convert that employee's appointment to career or career-conditional
under Sec. 315.701.
* * * * *
(c) An employee who was serving under an excepted appointment
limited to 1 year or less may be retained as a temporary employee under
paragraph (a) of this section until the scheduled expiration date of
the employee's excepted appointment. Extension of the employee's
temporary appointment beyond that date will be subject to the
provisions of Sec. 316.402.
(d) An employee who was serving under an excepted appointment with
a definite time limit longer than 1 year may be retained under a term
appointment. The appointment will be subject to all conditions
generally applicable to term appointments and may be extended up to the
maximum limit for term appointments established [[Page 17656]] under
Sec. 316.301. Service under the employee's excepted appointment counts
against the maximum limit for the term appointment.
* * * * *
[FR Doc. 95-8597 Filed 4-6-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6325-01-M
