Section 203 of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-411, October 30, 2004) authorized a new form of compensatory time off for time spent by an employee in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. (See CPM 2004-22, November 1, 2004). The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently issued interim regulations implementing this new provision (copy attached ).

Effective Date

The regulations implementing the new form of compensatory time off for time in a travel status are effective on January 28, 2005. Agencies must credit covered employees who perform officially authorized travel on or after the effective date with any compensatory time off for time in a travel status to which they are entitled under the regulations. If an employee is on an extended period of officially authorized travel on the effective date, only the qualifying travel hours occurring on or after the effective date are creditable for the purpose of earning the new compensatory time off.

Guidance

To assist agencies in implementing and administering this new provision, we are providing the attached questions and answers (Attachment 1) and some examples (Attachment 2) which illustrate how much compensatory time off an employee is entitled to earn for time spent in a travel status.

Additional Information

For additional information, agency Chief Human Capital Officers and/or Human Resources Directors should contact their assigned OPM Human Capital Officer. Employees should contact their agency human resources office for assistance.

cc: Chief Human Capital Officers
Human Resources Directors

Attachment 1

Attachment 2