This Directive was canceled June 8, 2004.

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U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT MANUAL

June 28, 1996

Chapter 2: Employment
Section 3: Part-Time Employment

Par.

  1. Purpose

  2. Scope

  3. References

  4. Part-time Career Employment

  5. Procedures

  6. Pay

  7. Benefits

  8. Hours of Work

  9. Reporting Requirements

  1. PURPOSE. To provide guidance on the administration of a part-time employment program in accordance with the Federal Employees Part-time Career Employment Act of 1978 within the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

  2. SCOPE. This section applies to all FHWA organizational units employing personnel under the Federal Employees Part-time Career Employment Act of 1978.

  3. REFERENCES.

    1. Title 5, United States Code (U.S.C.), Chapter 34, Section 3401, which codifies P.L. 95-437 (Federal Employees Part-time Career Employment Act of 1978).

    2. Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 340, Other Than Full-Time Career Employment, and Part 890, Administration and General Provisions.

    3. Office of Management and Budget Circular A-64, Position Management and Employment Ceilings, dated July 30, 1980, and Transmittal Memorandum No. 1, dated July 29, 1983.

  4. PART-TIME CAREER EMPLOYMENT

    1. Part-time career employment is regularly scheduled work from 16 to 32 hours per week (or 32 to 64 hours during a biweekly pay period in the case of a flexible or compressed work schedule) performed by employees serving under competitive or excepted appointments, effective on or after April 8, 1979. The part-time program in the FHWA applies to employees through GS-15 and equivalent positions in other pay plans consistent with FHWA resources and mission requirements.

    2. Excluded from coverage under the Federal Employees Part-time Career Employment Act (FEPCEA) of 1978 are student and summer aids, Schedule C, intermittent, and temporary employees. Also excluded are career employees who were working part-time on April 7, 1979 (for as long as they continue to work part-time without a break in part-time service). Part-time employees who are not covered by the FEPCEA, may work less than 16 and up to 39 hours per week as long as they remain in an excluded category of employment.

    3. Part-time career employees will be charged against the "Other than Full-time Permanent Employment" ceiling. This ceiling is expressed in full-time equivalent terms, i.e., compensable work years. Compensable work years equal hours worked, or scheduled to be worked in a 12-month period, divided by 2,087.

  5. PROCEDURES

    1. Participation. Participation in part-time programs is voluntary. Employees in full-time positions cannot be required to accept part-time employment. An employee desiring a change in employment from full-time to part-time (or vice versa) should submit a formal written request to the first-level supervisor. The first-level supervisor will evaluate the request in terms ofworkload, potential benefits, retention of a valuable employee, and the best interest of the government, and make his/her recommendation to the second-level supervisor. The second-level supervisor approves or disapproves the employee's request, provided he/she has been delegated that authority, after evaluating organizational needs and employment ceilings. The servicing personnel office should be contacted to help make these determinations. The decision of the second-level supervisor is final. A decision should be made and the employee notified in writing within 15 workdays from the date of the formal written request.

        (1) Approved Requests. The employee's request, a Standard Form SF-52, Request for Personnel Action, and any related documents will be forwarded to the servicing personnel office (Office of Personnel and Training, Personnel Operations Division for Washington Headquarters employees and the Regional Personnel Office for field employees).

        (2) Denied Requests. The employee's request and any related documents will be forwarded to the servicing personnel office. These records will be retained for one year.

    2. Reassignments. A part-time employee can be reassigned to a position with promotion potential no higher than his/her current position non-competitively, provided the employee meets the qualification requirements for the position.

    3. Promotions. If the position being sought by a part-time employee requires a promotion or has promotion potential beyond that contained in the employee's current position, there must be competition in accordance with the merit promotion procedures outlined in the Personnel Management Manual (PMM), Chapter 3, Section 1, Merit Promotion Guidelines. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis when evaluating specialized experience required for promotion to higher gradedpositions. Time-in-grade requirements for part-time employees are not pro-rated.

    4. Newly Hired Employees. Part-time employment can also be used when hiring new employees. One of the primary purposes of this program is to provide new employment opportunities for those individuals unable to work a full 40 hour per week schedule (or 80 hour biweekly schedule for those on a flexible or compressed work schedule). Supervisors should review each vacant position to determine whether or not a part-time employee could be utilized for that position.

    5. Service Credit. A part-time employee receives a full year of service credit for each calendar year worked, regardless of tour of duty, for the purpose of computing career tenure, service for retention, completion of probationary period, and leave accrual rates. Service credit for retirement is discussed in Section 7e below.

    6. Job Sharing. Job sharing is a form of part-time employment in which the tours of duty of two or more employees are arranged in such a way as to cover a single full-time position. Job-sharers are considered to be individual part-time employees for purposes of appointment, tour of duty, pay, classification, leave, holidays, benefits, etc. Job sharers may work a variety of different scheduling arrangements provided the work is performed on a regularly scheduled basis and is otherwise consistent with the guidelines for part-time work.

    7. Coordination. Personnel specialists from within the servicing personnel office for each region and Washington Headquarters will be available to provide advice and assistance to both management officials and employees regarding part-time employment program goals, purposes, and employee entitlement under the program.

  6. PAY. The hourly pay rate is the same for full-time and part-time employees. Waiting periods for within-grade increases are not affected by part-time status, since they are based on calendar weeks of creditable service.

  7. BENEFITS.

    1. Leave

        (1) Annual leave is earned on a pro-rated basis as determined by years of service. For example, a part-time employee with less than 3 years of service earns 1 hour of leave for each 20 hours worked. For 3 to 14 years of service, the rate is 1 hour for each 13 hours worked. For 15 years or more, 1 hour of leave is earned for each 10 hours worked. Maximum carryover of annual leave at the end of the leave year is 240 hours, the same as for full-time employees.

        (2) Sick leave is earned at a rate of 1 hour for every 20 hours in pay status.

        (3) Other leave categories (e.g., absence without leave, leave without pay, court leave, excused absences) are not affected by part-time status.

    2. Holidays. Holiday pay is received according to the number of hours scheduled to be worked on the day of the holiday. No holiday pay is received if the holiday falls on a regularly scheduled non-work day.

    3. Health Benefits. Part-time career and career-conditional employees are entitled to enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. However, instead of the full Government contribution received by full-time employees, the amount of the Government contribution for part-time employees will be an amount which is in direct proportion to the percentage of full-time servicethey regularly perform. This ratio is determined by dividing the average number of hours scheduled to be worked during the pay period by the average number of hours worked by a full-time employee (normally 80 hours per biweekly pay period). Part-time employees must pay the difference between the Health Plan Premium amount and the pro-rated Government contribution.

    4. Life Insurance. Part-time career and career-conditional employees are entitled to coverage under the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Program. The actual amount of insurance for which an employee is eligible is based on annual salary. For this purpose, a part-time employee's annual salary is computed on the basis of hours in the tour of duty times base pay rate.

    5. Retirement Benefits.

        (1) FERS. Annuity benefits for employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) will be computed by multiplying the "high-three" average salary rate by the length of service. The "high-three" will be based on the full-time salary rate the employee would have earned if he/she worked full-time. However, the length of service will be prorated (reduced) to reflect actual part-time service.

        (2) CSRS. Under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), annuity benefits for part-time service will be the sum of two computations: a pre-April 7, 1986 basic annuity and a post-April 6, 1986 basic annuity. The post-April 6, 1986 computation reflects a provision to the CSRS enacted on April 7, 1986 which is intended to prevent the windfall benefit that a long-time, part-time employee could receive in annuity if the employee changed to full-time for the last 3 years of service, which are typically the "high-three" salary years. The pre-April 7,1986 "high-three" average salary rate will be reduced depending upon the number of hours worked. This figure is then multiplied by the length of service performed prior to that date to compute the annuity. The post-April 6, 1986 annuity will be figured using the same computation method listed under FERS, with the "high-three" multiplied by the length of service performed on or after April 7, 1986. The resulting annuity benefit will then be prorated (reduced) by a fraction, (e.g., 32 hours per week is equivalent to 4/5 of the normal 40-hour work week), which represents the actual part-time tour of duty.

  8. HOURS OF WORK.

    1. A regular tour of duty must be established for the employee in line with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) regulations, which is no less than 16 hours per week and no more than 32 hours per week. An increase in the tour of duty above 32 hours per week is not usually permitted for more than two consecutive pay periods. If an increase above 32 hours per week is necessary for more than two consecutive pay periods on a short term or permanent basis, the action must be documented on an SF-50.

    2. Overtime provisions for part-time employees are the same as those for full-time employees.

    3. Compensatory time may be earned at the discretion of the leave approving official.

  9. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. The FHWA will report its progress in meeting part-time employment goals as established by OPT to the Office of the Secretary (OST) by April 30 and October 30 of each year. The OST will then report the progress made in meeting the Department's part-time career opportunity goals to the OPM.
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