Q: When civilians work compressed schedules (such as six 12-hour shifts and one eight-hour shift for 80 hours in a two-week period), how many holidays are they entitled to have off, or can the agency make them work all the holidays?
A: Full-time employees are entitled to an “in lieu of” holiday when it falls on a nonworkday, even if they are on flexible or compressed work schedules. When that happens, the employee’s holiday is the basic workday immediately preceding the nonworkday. There are exceptions, one of which allows the head of an agency to designate a different “in lieu of” holiday for compressed-work-schedule employees, when that is necessary to prevent adverse agency impact.
