Yes. An employee may apply for and receive donated annual leave while their application for disability retirement is being processed. Under the Federal leave transfer and leave bank programs, an employee who is experiencing a personal or family medical emergency and who has exhausted his or her available paid leave may request to become an approved leave recipient and receive donated annual leave. Once the disability retirement application has been approved by the Office of Personnel Management, the leave recipient may no longer receive or use donated annual leave beyond the end of the pay period in which the agency receives the notice of allowance of disability retirement.

Employees who are called to active duty in support of the ongoing national emergency are entitled to military leave under two separate provisions.A Federal employee who is a member of the National Guard or Reserves is entitled to 15 days (120 hours) of paid military leave under 5 U.S.C. 6323(a) each fiscal year for active duty, active duty training, or inactive duty training. An employee on military leave under section 6323(a) receives his or her full civilian salary, as well as military pay. This leave accrues at the beginning of each fiscal year, and all Guard or Reserve members, including those on extended active duty, should be credited with 15 days of paid military leave on October 1 of each year.An agency now may charge military leave under 6323 (a) only for hours the employee otherwise would have worked. An employee no longer "loses leave" on weekends and other nonworkdays and will be paid his or her full civilian pay for all 120 hours. (See fact sheet on Military Leave at http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/HTML/military.asp. This guidance does not apply to employees of the U.S. Postal Service.)In addition, effective November 24, 2003, employees who perform full-time military service as a result of a call or order to active duty in support of a contingency operation* as defined in section 101(a)(13) of title 10, United States Code, are entitled to 22 days of military leave under 5 U.S.C. 6323(b). Under this provision the employee is entitled to the greater of his military or civilian pay. (See Question 6.)Employees also are entitled to use any accrued or accumulated annual leave for periods of active military duty. Employees using annual leave will receive their full civilian pay, as well as compensation for their military service.

The intent of OPM's regulations governing the use of sick leave for family care is to allow an employee to provide physical care and other assistance to a family member, as appropriate. This may include, for example, providing transportation and/or accompanying a family member to a health care provider's office or to a hospital or other health care facility, providing assistance during examination and/or treatment, and providing care and assistance during recovery. Under agency policies, managers and supervisors must use their judgment in administering the use of sick leave for family care or bereavement in a fair and equitable manner. It is not possible for OPM to regulate or specify the criteria for every situation that may arise.

When the need for leave is foreseeable, an employee must give 30 days notice of his or her intent to take FMLA leave. When the need for leave is not foreseeable, an employee must provide notice as soon as is practicable. In addition, an agency may require an employee on leave for a serious health condition to provide initial medical certification and recertification every 30 calendar days. If the health care provider has specified on the initial medical certification a minimum duration of the period of incapacity, the agency may not request recertification until that period has passed unless other conditions arise that permit the agency to require recertification more frequently. (See 5 CFR 630.1207(h)(2)(i).)An agency's policies or procedures for notification of FMLA leave or medical certification may not be more stringent than required by OPM's regulations. If an employee who has been placed on leave restriction invokes his or her entitlement to FMLA leave, the agency must follow OPM's rules for notification and medical certification of FMLA leave.

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) entitles covered Federal employees to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave (leave without pay) during any 12-month period for certain family and medical needs, including the birth and care of a newborn. An employee may elect to substitute paid leave (e.g., annual or sick leave) for the unpaid FMLA leave, but only to the extent such paid leave is permitted under current law and regulations. If an employee chooses to invoke his or her entitlement to FMLA leave to care for a healthy newborn, he or she may only substitute annual leave for the unpaid leave, as there is no authority to use sick leave to care for a healthy child. An employee's entitlement to FMLA leave expires on the first anniversary of the child's birth.

See the annual leave fact sheet at - http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/HTML/ANNUAL.asp

Previously, OPM's regulations in 5 CFR 630.502(b) provided that an employee was entitled to a recredit of sick leave if he or she was reemployed in another Federal position within 3 years after separation. On December 2, 1994, OPM issued final regulations that removed the 3-year break-in-service limitation on the recredit of sick leave for former employees who are reemployed on or after December 2, 1994. Sick leave may not be recredited to employees who were reemployed in the Federal service before December 2, 1994, and who previously forfeited sick leave under the former rule.

If the current continuing resolution expires at 12:01 a.m. on April 9, 2011 without passage of an FY 2011 appropriations bill or a further continuing resolution, Federal departments and agencies will be required to execute contingency plans for a lapse in appropriations (more commonly referred to as a "shutdown"). These contingency plans detail which agency activities are allowed by law to continue to operate, and which activities must stop. Employees whose salaries are funded through annual appropriations will not be able to work and will be furloughed, unless their duties qualify under the law as "excepted" to continue to work during periods of lapsed appropriations. During a shutdown, non-excepted employees are not permitted to work as unpaid volunteers for the government.  Any paid leave (annual, sick, court, etc.) approved for use during the furlough period must be cancelled.  An excepted employee who is absent from duty during the shutdown must be furloughed during such an absence.  Please see more at http://www.opm.gov/furlough2011/

Agencies do not need to process any personnel actions (SF 50s) for periods of annual leave, military leave, earned compensatory time off for travel, or sick leave since the payroll system documents an employee's use of paid leave. Agencies should document an employee's use of leave without pay (LWOP) to perform duty with the uniformed services by processing a personnel action (SF 50) using nature of action "LWOP-US" (nature of action code 473). The effective date is the first day the employee begins to use leave without pay for duty with the uniformed services.Employees may use annual leave, military leave, compensatory time off for travel, or sick leave (consistent with the statutory and regulatory criteria for using sick leave), intermittently with leave without pay while performing duty with the uniformed services. OPM does not require that agencies process return-to-duty actions for each period of paid leave. Periods of "LWOP-US" may be interrupted by periods of annual leave or military leave without the need to process any additional personnel actions.

Yes. Under 5 U.S.C. 6306, when an individual who received a lump-sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave under 5 U.S.C. 5551 is reemployed in the Federal service before the end of the period covered by the lump-sum payment, he or she must refund to the employing agency an amount equal to the pay covering the period between the date of reemployment and the expiration of the lump-sum period. The refund is deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the employing agency. The refund is based on the rate of pay used to compute the lump-sum payment; e.g., an employee who received a lump-sum payment based on a GS-7 special salary rate must refund the lump-sum payment based on that same pay rate, even if he or she is reemployed at a lower grade level that is not covered by special salary rates.When an individual is reemployed in the Federal service in a position covered by the Federal leave system under 5 U.S.C. 6301(2), an amount of annual leave equal to the leave represented by the refund is recredited to the employee by the employing agency. When an individual is reemployed in the Federal service in a position not covered under 5 U.S.C. 6301(2), but is covered by a formal leave system, the amount of annual leave to be recredited to the employee will be determined using the rule for recrediting annual leave in 5 CFR 630.501(b).Individuals who are reemployed in a position excepted from the Federal leave system by 5 U.S.C. 6301(2)(ii), (iii), (vi), or (vii) are not required to refund a lump-sum payment. Individuals who are reemployed in the Federal service after expiration of the lump-sum period and individuals who are reemployed in the Federal service in a position that does not have a formal leave system in which the employee's annual leave may be recredited are not required to refund the lump-sum payment. Individuals who are reemployed in a position excepted from the Federal leave system by 5 U.S.C. 6301(2)(x)-(xiii) must refund the lump-sum payment, and the annual leave will be held in abeyance until the employee transfers to a position in which the annual leave may be recredited or the employee later becomes eligible for a lump-sum payment.A number of Comptroller General opinions on lump-sum payments may be found in the Civilian Personnel Law Manual, Title II--Leave, chapter 3, Lump-Sum Leave Payments.

No. An employee is entitled to the greater of his civilian or military pay, not both. Under 5 U.S.C. 5519, the military pay received by an individual who has been activated in support of civil authorities or a contingency operation must be credited (less any travel, transportation, or other per diem allowances) against any Federal civilian pay the employee received during the 22 workdays of military leave. An agency may calculate the amount of military pay (less any travel, transportation, or per diem allowances) an employee will receive for the time period that corresponds to the 22 workdays of military leave and reduce the employee's civilian pay by that amount during the 22 workdays of military leave. In contrast, many agencies choose to continue to pay the employee his or her full civilian pay during the 22 workdays of military leave. At the end of the 22-day period of military leave, the agency requires the employee to refund to the agency an amount equal to the amount of military pay received (less any travel, transportation, or per diem allowances) up to the amount of his or her civilian pay for the time period that corresponds to the 22 workdays of military leave.

No. The Comptroller General has ruled that an individual on active duty military service may not be employed in a civilian capacity with the Government. The Comptroller General has held that the rendition of services to the Government in a civilian capacity by a member of the armed services on active duty is incompatible with the member's actual or potential military duties and payment for such services is not authorized in the absence of specific statutory authority. This is the case even though the civilian services are rendered during the military member's hours of relaxation or time provided to attend to personal affairs. (See 64 Comp. Gen. 395, 399-400 (1985), and 47 Comp. Gen. 505-506 (1968).)

Yes. An employee who is a member of the Reserves or National Guard serving on active military duty which extends into a second or succeeding fiscal year may accrue and use the 15 days of military leave which accrue at the beginning of the second fiscal year and each succeeding fiscal year without return to civilian status. In addition, an employee who has been activated in support of the national emergency whose duty extends into the next calendar year will be entitled to up to an additional 22 days of military leave under 6323(b).

Yes. Effective November 24, 2003, all employees who have been activated in support of the national emergency declared by the President are entitled to the 22 days of military leave under 5 U.S.C. 6323(b).