Most Federal employees would probably say they could use a little extra money. How about a lot of extra money?
Congress authorized extended assignment incentives when it created the Homeland Security Dept. OPM has now issued interim regulations that will allow employees to receive a significant amount of money. (25 percent of the annual rate of basic pay of an employee times the number of years in the service period).
There are several broad criteria that have to be met for you to qualify for this extra payment.
- You must be a federal employee with two years of continuous civil service immediately before commencement of a service agreement;
- Your agency must conclude that finding a replacement who has the required qualifications and experience would be difficult, and
- Your agency must determine it is in the government’s best interest to keep you around as an employee for a specified time.
The OPM regulations are not final and you can submit comments up until November 12, 2003. Your comments can be sent to the attention of Donald Winstead by e-mail to pay-performance-policy@opm.gov.
The interim regulation is extensive and will require action by your agency before it is implemented. You can download the new OPM regulation from the link on the side of this page.
