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Human Resources

Pay & Leave

Emergency Dismissal/Closure Procedures for REE Employees With Duty Stations INSIDE THE WASHINGTON, DC BELTWAY

OPM may authorize an "adjusted work dismissal" or an "adjusted home departure" policy, both of which rely upon the employee's normal departure times from home or work to determine the time period an employee will be excused from work.

Adjusted Work Dismissal

Employees will be released from work early relative to the time they normally leave for the day. For example, if OPM authorizes a 3-hour early dismissal due to a snowstorm, an employee who would normally leave at 5:00 p.m. would be able to leave at 2:00 p.m.

Adjusted Home Departure

An "adjusted home departure" policy allows employees to leave their homes later than their normal departure times. For example, should OPM announce this policy is in effect and employees should delay their normal departure time for 2 hours, employees who would normally leave for work at 7:00 a.m. would delay leaving their homes until 9:00 a.m.

The two policies described above may be used in other emergency situations, such as power failures and interruption of public transportation. OPM will notify Human Resources Directors of each agency of a decision to invoke an "unscheduled leave" policy or one of the above policies. OPM will also attempt to notify the news media by 6:00 a.m. if one of these policies will be used due to an emergency occurring before normal working hours. Information will also be made
available on OPM's World Wide Web site at http://www.opm.gov.

OPM Announcements

OPM will provide one of the following five announcements to the media when an
emergency occurs before the workday begins:

  1. "Federal agencies are OPEN; employees are expected to report for work on time." Supervisors may grant a reasonable amount of excused absence to employees who are unavoidably delayed in arriving to work. Factors such as distance, availability of transportation, and the success of other employees in similar situations should be considered in determining the amount of excused absence to grant. Employees are responsible for notifying their supervisors of their situation.

  2. "Federal agencies are operating under an UNSCHEDULED LEAVE policy; employees may take leave without prior approval." (Non-emergency employees may take annual leave or LWOP without their supervisor's prior approval, but employees should notify their supervisors of their intentions.)

  3. "Federal agencies are operating under an ADJUSTED HOME DEPARTURE policy. Employees are requested to leave home hours later than their normal departure time." (Non-emergency employees should adjust their normal home departure time consistent with the announcement. Employees will be granted excused absence from the time they normally arrive at work until the time they actually arrive at work.)

  4. "Federal agencies are operating under an ADJUSTED HOME DEPARTURE/UNSCHEDULED LEAVE policy. Employees are requested to leave home __ hours later than their normal departure time, and employees may take leave without prior approval." (Federal agencies are open on time, but nonemergency employees should adjust their normal home departure time consistent with the announcement. Non-emergency employees arriving late will be excused without loss of pay or charge to leave, or they may take annual leave or LWOP without prior approval of their supervisors. Employees should notify their supervisors of their intentions.)

  5. "Federal agencies are CLOSED." (Non-emergency employees are excused from work without loss of pay or charge to leave.)

When OPM invokes one of the above policies, employees who have been designated as "emergency" employees are expected to report to work on time, unless otherwise instructed.

Please note that this procedure applies only to those REE units within the Washington, D.C. Beltway. The policy for those units outside the Beltway remains the same.

If you have any questions, please contact Michelyn Boyd, on 301-504-1466, or Terri Ponte on 301-504-1474, or Ted Nykiel, on 301-504-4426.

Last Updated 01/16/2009