Bringing Nonpermanent Excepted Positions Into the Competitive Service

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]

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