Agencies will by and large treat employees as if the government shutdown never happened, according to a recent memo issued by Office of Personnel Management Director Kathleen McGettigan.

As part of the continuing resolution passed on Jan. 22, 2018, Congress provided for employees to receive back pay for the duration of the shutdown.

The memo, which provides official guidance on how chief human capital officers should address employee compensation during the shutdown period, outlines five primary categories of employees:

Furloughed

Employees who were furloughed during the shutdown will be treated as if they had worked all of the hours they were scheduled to work during that period. This includes scheduled overtime, night work and standby duty. Because furloughed employees will be considered to be in pay status, those employees will also accrue annual or sick leave during that time.

Excepted

Employees who were designated “excepted” during the shutdown will be paid for the work they performed. This also includes accrued leave.

Employees on paid leave

Because a shutdown negates all paid leave approvals, employees who were scheduled to be on paid leave will either be treated like furloughed employees, who receive pay for scheduled work hours, or exempted employees, depending on the status that employee was placed under during the shutdown. They will therefore not be charged for the paid leave time they were planning to take.

Employees on leave without pay

Any employee on preapproved leave without pay, including family and medical leave, will continue to be charged for that time, and will not be paid during the shutdown period. If employees were scheduled to use both paid and unpaid leave during the shutdown, they will be treated as an employee on paid leave for the days they were scheduled to do so, and employees on unpaid leave for the other days.

Senior political officials

Senior political officials, which includes the vice president and certain political appointees, will continue to work under the pay freeze established at 2013 levels. That pay freeze does not change until Congress passes appropriations to lift it.

It should be noted that the language of the continuing resolution granting back pay only applies to those affected Jan. 20 - 22; any future lapses in appropriations would require new legislation to provide retroactive compensation.

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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