Par.

1. Purpose

2. References

3. Responsibilities

4. Types of Personnel Actions Initiated On SF-52

5. Completing the SF-52

6. Position Descriptions

7. Documentation of Personnel Actions

8. Effective Date of Personnel Actions

9. Administrative Personnel Actions

10. Confirmatory Personnel Actions

11. Distribution of Standard Form 50

1. PURPOSE. To provide operating offices with information on the SF-52, "Request for Personnel Action" process, and documentation of personnel actions.

2. REFERENCES.

   1. Title 5, United States Code, Chapter 29, Subchapter II,

   2. Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 293, and

   3. The Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, Operating Manual, Office of Personnel Management

3. RESPONSIBILITIES.

   1. Washington Headquarters. Operating offices are responsible for proper preparation and timely submission of the SF-52 to the Office of Personnel and Training.

   2. Field Offices. The division offices are responsible for preparing the SF-52 for their employees or positions and for forwarding it to their servicing personnel office. The regional office or human resource center is responsible for verifying the data contained on the SF-52 from the divisions, preparing the SF-52 for their own employees or positions, and for forwarding all the SF-52's to the Washington Headquarters office for processing.

4. TYPES OF PERSONNEL ACTIONS INITIATED ON SF-52. The SF-52 is used to request all personnel actions relating to a position, an employee or both. Personnel actions include reclassification and abolishment of a position; promotion, reassignment, change to lower grade, or position change of an employee; name change; quality step increase; performance and incentive awards; denial of within-grade increase; appointment or reinstatement of a person to a position; recording and termination of a detail in excess of 30 days; recording and termination of leave without pay in excess of 80 hours, furlough, or suspension; resignation, termination, retirement, or other separation of an employee; the closing of an official personnel file in the event of death; and other actions.

5. COMPLETING THE SF-52. The Office of Personnel Management's Guide to Processing Personnel Actions provides detailed guidance on the completion of the SF-52, Request for Personnel Action.

   1. The office requesting a personnel action initiates the SF-52. If the request is for a classification or redescription of an existing position, the office should submit it to the appropriate servicing personnel office at least 4 weeks in advance of the proposed effective date. All other requests for personnel actions should be submitted at least 2 weeks in advance of the proposed effective date or as soon as the supervisor or administrative official is aware that a personnel action is required.

   2. The gaining office is responsible for initiating the personnel action in the case of reassignment, transfers,and promotions between two field offices, or Headquarters and a field office.

   3. The losing office is responsible for initiating the personnel action in cases of detail between two organizations.

6. POSITION DESCRIPTIONS. An SF-52 which requests the establishment of a new position, or the classification of, or promotion, reassignment, or detail to an established position, must be forwarded to the appropriate servicing personnel office with a copy of the position description. A copy of the approved position description will be returned to the originating office after the position has been classified.

7. DOCUMENTING PERSONNEL ACTIONS. The SF-52, Request for Personnel Action, is generally a temporary record used to initiate the SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, which is a permanent record in an employee's Official Personnel Folder (OPF). Personnel actions which affect an employee's status, tenure, position or compensation must be documented and reported. The SF-50 is used to document and report all personnel actions except mass transfer and mass changes, which may be reported by a listing of the employees concerned.

8. EFFECTIVE DATE OF PERSONNEL ACTIONS

   1. Accession actions are effective on the Sunday at the beginning of the pay period when the employee works the following Monday. If the Monday is a national holiday, the new employee's effective date is the first workday after the national holiday. Transfers from another Federal agency will be made effective the day following the day the employee is separated from the former agency. Accessions in the middle of the pay period are permitted only on rare occasions.

   2. Promotions, reassignments and other status change actions will become effective on the first day of the pay period following the approval of the appointing authority, unless a later date is established by the appointing authority.

   3. Conversions to career tenure will be made effective the date on which the three-year service requirement is met.

   4. Name changes will be made effective the day the SF-50 is prepared.

   5. Resignations will become effective on the date specified by the employee, even though this date may be a holiday or a nonworkday.

   6. Separation for military service will become effective the day preceding the day the employee enters on active military duty, except members of reserve components who are eligible for military leave, in which case the separation becomes effective at the expiration of the military leave.

9. ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL ACTIONS. Administrative personnel actions are those which due to legal restrictions, cannot be made retroactively effective. The actions listed below must be approved on or before their effective date by the official to whom authority to approve such actions has been delegated:

   
                               ACCESSIONS
   
        Career Appointment                 Excepted Appointment
   
        Career-Conditional Appointment     Overseas Limited App.
   
        Appointment (Special Authority)    Restoration
   
        Temporary Appointment              Reemployment-Military
   
        Term Appointment                   Reinstatement
   
        Indefinite Appointment             Transfer
   
                                CHANGES
   
        Promotion                     Conversion to:
   
        Demotion                           Career Appointment
   
        Reassignment                       Career-Conditional App.
   
        Change in Title                    Excepted Appointment
   
        Administrative Pay Increase        Temporary Appointment
   
        Administrative Pay Decrease        Reinstatement
   
        Quality Increase                   Overseas Limited App.
   
        Suspension                         Extension of Appointment
   
        Furlough                           Change in Duty Station
   
        Return to Duty (From Furlough)     Retention in Status Quo
   
                              SEPARATIONS
   
        Reduction-in-Force                 Removal
   
        Termination (except expiration),   Separation
   
        Separation (Disqualification),        (Disability)
   
   

10. CONFIRMATORY PERSONNEL ACTIONS. Confirmatory personnel actions are those which become automatically effective but which must be confirmed as a matter of official record. The actions listed below may be retroactively effective since effective dates of such actions are set by circumstances beyond the control of the approving officer:

                            CHANGES
    
         Within-grade Increases        Mass Change and Mass 
    
         Leave Without Pay                Transfer
    
         Return to Duty From LWOP      Conversion to Career
    
         Conversion to Career Tenure      or Career-conditional
    
                                          Appointment   
    
    
    
                               SEPARATIONS
    
         Separation-Transfer           Retirement (for any reason)
    
         Separation-Military           Removal-Abandonment
    
         Death                         Termination (Expiration of
    
         Resignation                     Appointment)
    
    

11. DISTRIBUTION OF THE STANDARD FORM 50. The original or employee copy of the SF-50 is forwarded to the employee through the operating office, except in the case of separation actions when it is mailed directly to the employee's forwarding address. This avoids delay in receipt of any attached documents, such as information on the employee's conversion privileges under the Group Life Insurance and Health Benefits program.