U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
This Directive was canceled February 20, 2004.
Order |
Subject |
FHWA Personnel Management Manual; Chapter 1: Personnel Actions and Records; Section 1: Personnel Actions |
Classification Code |
Date |
|
M3000.1B |
June 28, 1996 |
|
Par.
- Purpose
- References
- Responsibilities
- Types of Personnel Actions Initiated On SF-52
- Completing the SF-52
- Position Descriptions
- Documentation of Personnel Actions
- Effective Date of Personnel Actions
- Administrative Personnel Actions
- Confirmatory Personnel Actions
- Distribution of Standard Form 50
- PURPOSE. To provide operating offices with information on the SF-52,
"Request for Personnel Action" process, and documentation of personnel actions.
- REFERENCES.
- Title 5, United States Code, Chapter 29, Subchapter II,
- Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 293, and
- The Guide to Processing Personnel Actions, Operating Manual, Office of Personnel Management
- RESPONSIBILITIES.
- Washington Headquarters. Operating offices are responsible for
proper preparation and timely submission of the SF-52 to the Office of Personnel and Training.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The losing office is responsible for initiating the personnel action
in cases of detail between two organizations.
- 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.
- 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.
- EFFECTIVE DATE OF PERSONNEL ACTIONS
- 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.
- 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.
- Conversions to career tenure will be made effective the date on which
the three-year service requirement is met.
- Name changes will be made effective the day the SF-50 is prepared.
- Resignations will become effective on the date specified by the employee,
even though this date may be a holiday or a nonworkday.
- 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.
- 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)
- 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)
- 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.
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