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Order
Subject
FHWA Personnel Management Manual; Part 1: Personnel Systems & Procedures, Chapter 3: Assignment and Utilization of Employees, Section 5: Reemployment Rights, Return Rights, and Special Selection Consideration Programs
Classification Code Date
M3000.1C August 4, 2004  

Par.

  1. What is the purpose of this section?
  2. Does this directive cancel an existing FHWA directive?
  3. What references were used in writing this section?
  4. What are reemployment, reinstatement, and return rights?
  5. What are Special Selection Consideration Programs?

  1. What is the purpose of this section? This section defines the policy and procedures for the restoration rights, reemployment rights, reinstatement rights, return rights, and special selection consideration of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) employees who are so entitled by law, regulations and administrative determinations.

  2. Does this directive cancel an existing FHWA directive? Yes. This directive cancels FHWA Personnel Management Manual (PMM) Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 5, Reemployment Rights, Return Rights and Placement Consideration Programs, dated June 28, 1996.

  3. What references were used in writing this section?

    1. Title 38, United States Code (U.S.C.), Sections 4312 – 4314.

    2. Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 353, Restoration to Duty from Uniformed Service or Compensable Injury.

    3. Title 5, CFR, Part 352, Reemployment Rights, Subparts C and E.

    4. Title 5, U.S.C., Sections 3581- 3584 and 3343.

    5. Departmental Personnel Manual (DPM) Chapter 352, Subchapter 3, Detail and Transfer of Federal Employees to International Organizations.

    6. Title 5, U.S.C., Section 3373.

    7. Title 5, CFR, Part 334, Temporary Assignment of Employees Between Federal Agencies and State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments, Institutions of Higher Education, and other Eligible Organizations.

    8. Title 5, CFR, Part 335, Promotion and Internal Placement.

    9. Title 5, CFR, Part 330, Recruitment, Selection, and Placement (General), Subparts B, F and G.

    10. DPM System Letters 330-9, Mandatory Placement Programs for Displaced and Surplus Employees; 330-8, DOT Reemployment Priority List; and 300-22, DOT Career Transition Program.

    11. FHWA Career Transition Assistance Program.

  4. What are reemployment, reinstatement, and return rights?

    1. These are entitlements, based upon law, of an employee to return to career employment after assignment to other kinds of employment. These include, but are not limited to, the statutory rights outlined below. Each of the rights defined are individual employee rights based on statutes and regulations and they take precedence over any other priority consideration entitlement. These rights are generally exercised at the employee's initiative, except the return from an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignment upon termination of that assignment.

      Statutory Reemployment, Reinstatement and Return Rights

      LAW

      AUTHORITY

      PROVISION

      STIPULATION

      Military Service Restoration Right

      38 U.S.C. 4312 – 4314; 5 CFR 353; Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

      Right to position held prior to being ordered to duty, or position of like seniority, status and pay.

      Notification for reemployment varies based on period of service in the uniformed services.

      Foreign Service Reinstatement Right

      5 CFR 352 & Foreign Assistance Act of 1961

      Right to former position or to one of like seniority, status and pay.

       

      International Organization Reemployment Right

      5 USC 3581- 3584 and 3343

      Reemployment right to same position or to one of like seniority, status and pay.

      The FHWA Administrator must have approved initial transfer.

      Intergovernmental Personnel Act Return Right

      IPA of 1970; 5 USC 3373

      Right to former position or another position of like pay and grade.

       

      Temporary Promotion Return Right

      5 CFR 335.102

      Right to return to same or equivalent position upon termination of temporary promotion.

       

    2. Procedures and responsibilities. An employee who has any of the rights listed above is responsible for advising the servicing human resource office at the time he/she is eligible. It is the responsibility of the servicing human resource office to oversee such employee rights and entitlements, and to notify management in advance of the possible exercise of such rights so that appropriate placements may be made. Management officials are responsible for planning staffing programs and management positions in their organizations to provide for timely placement of these employees.

  5. What are Special Selection Consideration Programs?

    1. Career Transition Assistance Program. In accordance with 5 CFR, Part 330, current FHWA and other U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) career or career-conditional employees who are identified as surplus or displaced employees are eligible for special selection priority for positions in DOT as well as career transition services under the FHWA Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP). With few exceptions, a well-qualified “CTAP eligible” must be selected over any other candidate for vacancies in the local commuting area for which they apply. Additional information for this program can be found in the DPM System Letters 330-9, Mandatory Placement Programs for Displaced and Surplus Employees; 330-8, DOT Reemployment Priority List; 300-22, DOT Career Transition Program; and PMM Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 6, Reduction-In-Force (RIF).

    2. Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program. In accordance with 5 CFR, Part 330, current and former FHWA (and other DOT) employees who are separated (or being separated) through RIF, or removed (or being removed) for declining a directed reassignment or transfer of function outside the local commuting area, are eligible for special selection priority for positions in other Executive Branch agencies. These positions are announced outside those agencies under each agency’s Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP).

    3. Priority consideration. Priority consideration is the review of an eligible employee's qualifications by the selecting official simultaneously with the qualifications of employees obtained through merit promotion. The following programs grant specific administrative entitlements to eligible employees for priority consideration.

      1. (1) Eligibility based on failure to receive proper consideration in a merit promotion action. This consideration is based on FHWA PMM Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 1, covering employees not given proper consideration in a previous merit promotion action. These employees must be provided with priority promotion consideration for the next appropriate vacancy to compensate for the lost consideration. The consideration is provided only when the promotion action in question is allowed to stand. Servicing human resource offices will maintain a record of these candidates and advise management officials when such consideration is to be provided.

      2. (2) Repromotion Consideration Program. This consideration covers employees who were demoted through no fault of their own and not at their own request, and who are not covered by the grade/pay retention provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1980. These employees may be given repromotion consideration as an exception to competitive merit promotion procedures.

    4. DOT Reemployment Priority List (RPL). In accordance with DPM Chapter 330, a career or career-conditional employee who is separated because of RIF or a compensable injury or disability (where recovery takes more than one year from the time the employee began receiving compensation) will be entered on the DOT RPL for all DOT positions and grade levels in his/her local commuting area for which qualified and available. This list must be used when filling vacancies by recruitment from outside DOT. Reemployment from the RPL is treated as a reinstatement. The maximum eligibility period is one year from the date of separation for career-conditional employees and two years for career employees.

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Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000