An interim rule to allow federal employees to claim time off for travel during their off-duty hours has been distributed through the Bush administration for comment and review and should take effect Jan. 28, according to the draft version of the regulation.
Many federal workers are eagerly awaiting the rule, especially those who travel on official business during off-duty hours, such as flying on a Sunday to attend a meeting on Monday morning. Previous rules have made it difficult for employees to qualify for pay while traveling outside normal business hours.
The proposed interim rule, prepared by the Office of Personnel Management, essentially serves as a default for those times when employees cannot receive some form of compensation under other regulations. The new benefit was approved by Congress last year.
"We are very pleased," said Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which lobbied Congress to allow compensatory time off because of travel.
"Some call it a benefit. I think it is a fairness issue that corrects an inequity," she said.
Employees covered by most other rules governing time off would not be permitted to claim comp time under the new rule. Law enforcement officers who receive extra pay, known as availability pay, for performing additional, unscheduled duty, would be ineligible to claim time off for travel.
The proposed rule builds on existing policies for implementation of the new benefit.
The draft rule, for example, says that "time in travel status" would include only the hours actually spent traveling between duty stations. The "usual waiting time" involved with travel, such as checking in at airports an hour or two before a flight, also would qualify as compensatory time off.
Employees stranded at airports or rail and bus stations because of weather or equipment breakdowns would not be able to claim any hours spent "for his or her own purposes," such as sleeping, eating and shopping, according to the draft version of the rule.
Employees would have to take their compensatory time off within 26 pay periods -- essentially a year -- after it was earned. Employees also would forfeit their comp time if they voluntarily took a job at a different agency or resigned from the government.
"We have deliberately taken a conservative approach with respect to the time limit on the use of earned compensatory time off," the draft version says. "We are mindful that we are dealing with a new type of employee benefit which presents new issues and administrative challenges for agencies."
The new form of compensatory time off is part of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act, which President Bush signed in October. Several OPM officials worked on the proposed rule, including Ronald P. Sanders, Donald J. Winstead and Jo Ann Perrini.
New Vendor at TSP
CitiStreet LLC, which provides benefit services to state governments, corporations and other organizations, has been selected to develop a communications and education strategy for the rollout of new funds by the Thrift Savings Plan.
The announcement of CitiStreet's selection to help devise an outreach program to TSP participants was made by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board yesterday.
The board announced last year that it planned to add lifecycle funds this summer to the TSP, a 401(k)-type program that manages about $152 billion in retirement savings for more than 3.4 million civil service, postal and military personnel.
Lifecycle funds allow participants to pick the date when they intend to start drawing down their TSP savings, such as at retirement or later. Based on that timeline, the lifecycle option would automatically adjust portfolios to become more conservative, or less risky, as the date approached.
TSP officials have been concerned that some participants, lacking either time or sophistication, do not regularly rebalance their accounts to ensure diversification and appropriate risk.
In November, the board selected Mercer Investment Consulting Inc. to develop lifecycle models for the TSP. Once they are developed, CitiStreet will help educate TSP participants about the new option, the board said in a statement.
CitiStreet is a joint venture of Citigroup, the large financial services company, and State Street Corp., a banking and investment management firm.
E-mail: barrs@washpost.com
