OPM Redefines Federal Leave Policy for Severe Weather Read more: http://www.thirdage.com/news/opm-redefines-federal-leave-policy-severe-weather_12-16

Dec 16, 2010

OPM—after being hit with a pay freeze and a Christmas Eve workday, federal employees must deal with a new policy that forces employees to work from home to make up hours they’ve missed either under severe weather conditions or emergency circumstances.

According to PRNewswire, on Wednesday, the government endorsed an Office of Personnel Management policy that allows federal employees to telework on an unscheduled basis when “severe weather conditions or other circumstances prevent employees from reporting to work in the Washington D.C. area.

This means that if federal workers arrive late to work, or leave early from work to avoid snowbound traffic, they must make up for those missed hours once they arrive home. Otherwise, employees who wish to use unscheduled leave may use “annual leave, earned compensatory time off, earned credit hours, or leave without pay.”

"During last winter's major snow storms many of our members continued to work from home and the business of the government kept humming despite the closure of D.C. offices for five days," said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). "We have continued to push OPM to provide additional opportunities for more workers to have this flexibility."

The National Weather Service predicts this winter will be milder than the blizzards in early 2010, which crippled the Mid-Atlantic with raging snowfall.

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