Q. I am a federal employee under FERS. I have 13 years of service with a minimum of 10 years to become eligible for regular retirement. Due to an injury, I was on leave without pay for several months, then returned to work overseas. After I was on the job eight months, my condition manifested in physical symptoms, at which point my physician recommended that I take leave. My employer approved sick and annual leave but said I was ineligible for LWOP because I was overseas. I am still on my own leave, but it will soon be exhausted, and…
Browsing: Leave without pay
Q. I came into federal service in 1995 with the Air Force (civilian). In May 2012, I began a Schedule A excepted service temporary appointment to the Army to serve in Afghanistan. The Air Force put me on leave without pay, and I have return rights and will return to my old position and location when this one-year assignment is done. I want to ensure that there is no break in service or other problem when it comes time to retire. Is there anything that I should do now to ensure that things don’t get messed up at retirement time?…
Q. If an employee has a disability (schizophrenia), can the employee request two years of leave without pay to get away from a hostile work environment due to co-workers? A. An employee may make such a request. Whether it would be granted would be up to the agency. Depending on the employee’s ability to provide useful and efficient service, the agency might recommend that the employee file for disability retirement instead.
Q. I am a dual status technician GS employee in the Air National Guard. I’m trying to figure out if a three-month activation on Title 10 active duty for which I go leave without pay from my technician job will require me to make a military deposit to credit that tour after completion? Does such a short tour fall under the LWOP six-month rule and therefore doesn’t require any payment? Our agency has been calculating deposits to cover less than six-month tours in the past, but I’m curious if that’s necessary. A. Your agency is correct. You won’t be taking…
Q. OPM’s Standard Form 71 (Request for Leave or Approved Absence) contains options for Advanced Annual/Sick Leave in addition to Accrued Annual/Sick Leave, Leave Without Pay (LWOP), etc. Due to personal circumstances, I asked my immediate supervisor for both Advanced Leave and LWOP, and he said that he while he could grant LWOP, he would not be able to grant Advanced Leave because his upper management discourages it. Can my agency legally exclude Advanced Leave as one of my leave options? A. Yes. You’re not entitled to advanced annual leave. In making a decision, your agency may consider such factors…
Q. I started a position with a federal agency in October 2010 and worked through July 2011 (about nine months) when I was diagnosed with advanced stage cancer and had to go on leave without pay. I was on LWOP for all of 2012. I am still on LWOP and a colleague suggested I apply for disability retirement. I started collecting Social Security disability in January 2012. Do I have enough creditable hours to meet the 18 months under the FERS disability retirement? Does collecting Social Security disability when I did affect my creditable-hours calculation? I also received several hundred…
Q. I am a 55-year-old Postal Service employee with more than 26 years of creditable service who has been on active duty under Title 10 for the past 10 years. Late last year, I was offered the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, which I accepted and submitted the irrevocable application along with all of the required documents. On Jan. 31, I received a phone from the Postal Service human resources office to inform me that my retirement could not be processed because I am on active duty. I was also told that I had to return to pay status to be eligible for retirement. 1. …
Q. My wife, who is terminally ill, is covered by FERS and is an employee of the Postal Service. She is running out of sick and annual leave. If she goes on leave without pay and passes away while on leave without pay, will I, as her current husband (25 years +) still be eligible for the basic employee death benefit (50 percent of final salary plus $15,000)? A. If your wife had more than 18 months service but less than 10 years, you’d receive a lump-sum payment of $31,316.46 plus a lump-sum of the higher of 50 percent on…
Q. I am career permanent in federal government employment as GS-14. I wish to leave to take a private-sector job to see if I like it. How long can I remain on unpaid leave of absence and still have return rights back into federal employment? A. You are asking about leave without pay, the granting of which is solely at the discretion of your management. Your management would be unlikely to grant LWOP to someone who wants to test private-sector waters. It would provide little or no benefit to them and would tie up a position they would be better…
Q. I’m a dual-status federal tech. I am 47 and have 16 years under FERS counting 10 years of military service I bought back. I was injured during military duties that will make me unfit for my position in the Air National Guard. Will I be eligible for the 60/40 annuity when the ANG finds me unfit? If I receive disability payments from the Veterans Affairs Department, how will they affect my FERS disability annuity? I am out of sick and annual leave and have been told from the beginning there is no limited or light duty — if I…