GS Employee on Reserve Orders

[olevelo]

Looking for any civil service Reservists in the know. I'm starting a new federal position next week, but after one week I'm going on Reserve orders (IMA) for 3.5 months. It's not ideal timing but the General over both positions has approved the plan so it is what is for the GS position.

My question is in regards to maintaining my federal time/benefits/leave. My understanding is that even if I'm on LWOP status for the duration, the time still counts toward retirement, correct? However, I won't accumulate regular leave or sick leave days during that time.

I have heard though that as long as you have "some" time accounted for during each pay period, leave days will continue to accumulate, such as by taking a day of leave during each pay period, and then LWOP for the rest of it. However, since I will only be working for one week prior to starting my reserve duty, I will only have a couple of days leave earned. I should have my 15 days of military leave right off the bat though? Can I use a day of military leave each pay period to continue my leave accumulation? How do I go about doing that?

Are there are any other benefits I may be missing while on Reserve duty, or any gotchas for doing the Reserve time? The plan is to do 10 IDT's and then 2 weeks of AT prior to starting the 90 day tour. Thanks for any tips.

[MHS]

I'm also very interested in the answers to these questions, thanks in advance!

[HerkFE]

-I should have my 15 days of military leave right off the bat though?

I believe you are right and should be good there.

-Can I use a day of military leave each pay period to continue my leave accumulation?

I don't think so. I was under the same impression once. I retired in 2011 and my last mil leave episode was in 2010. I thought I could take 8 or 10 hours leave each PP and still accrue my 8 hr A/L and 4 hrs S/L but I was wrong. Had the personnel chick explain it to me and, after the 10 minute explanation, the answer was "No". I think she said something like I could take 40hrs and earn half of my entitled A/L and S/L but I've killed too many brain cells since then to swear to that. Whatever the cost/benefit was, it didn't matter anyway because it wasn't good math.

-My understanding is that even if I'm on LWOP status for the duration, the time still counts toward retirement, correct? Fairly certain, Yes. You will probably have to buy back that time but it should be pocket change.

FWIW, I work for the FAA. I am pretty sure these issues are OPM driven so they probably are fairly consistent federal gummit wide. Your agency MAY have some caveats.

Edited May 2, 2015 by HerkFE

[olevelo]

I still haven't gotten a definitive answer here or elsewhere yet, but from further research it looks like I'm SOL on the leave accrual. It seems that that when you hit any multiple of 80 hours in a pay period, you earn no leave in that period. So the best I can do is use my mil leave all at once so I earn pay and leave for those two pay periods, but all of the other periods I won't accrue leave.

[matmacwc]

Look into 2 different LWOP, which exist. Use on for a while, then switch. The leave issue will not be resolved, but the retirement and health care issue should.

[olevelo]

What exactly is the retirement and health care issue though? From what I can find, the time has to still count for retirement even if it's all straight LWOP. I'm not sure what the healthcare implications are. The thing is, I have Tricare for 6 months anyway due to being RIFd, so I don't even want to be paying for civilian health care at all. But I'm not sure I can do that due to the 60 day enrollment limit though.

[BUSTED]

When on LWOP, do you still get step increases?

Also, I understand LWOP counts toward retirement if you buy back the time, but does it count toward the initial 5 years of civil service required to be vested for retirement? Or does it have to be 5 years of actually being at the job?

[HerkFE]

I found this link a few days ago while doing some research on federal personnel/hiring/retirment, etc. issues. I sent an email with my question and got an emailed answer the next day. Email: fedexperts@federaltimes.com Website: http://retirement.federaltimes.com/ They seem to know their shizzle

[ATIS]

Make sure you are taking MLWOP...not standard LWOP. I have spent over 3+ years doing stuff on active duty while working as a GS, NAVAIR has been very good to me and I have a pers office (Kathy is her name...son in the 160th) that takes care of me.

PM me with your specific questions and I will ask her.

Cheers

ATIS

[HeyWatchThis]

Mil Leave should be coded as "kg" in the leave system. That's the code that allows you to continue to accrue retirement, seniority, etc

My recent step promotion was automatic and that was after being on mil leave for 2+yrs.

Also just an FYI, you can carry forward up to 120 hrs of mil leave a year.

Example: I was hired in August 2012. I didn't file the paperwork to start my mil leave until October. Mil leave re-ups every fiscal year so I was able to go back and get 120 hrs from when I worked August/Sept of FYI AND get 120 hrs for FY13 in October

[olevelo]

So here's a summary of what I've been able to find out between all the different sources:

Leave accrual: I can only continue to accrue leave while in a pay status, ie mil leave. Since I'm a new employee, and will be on orders for over 3 months, I don't have any annual leave to use, and just the 15 days of mil leave. After that's used up I'll go on LWOP-US (leave without pay - uniformed service...that's what the Air Force calls it in myPers...I'm guessing that's the same as MLWOP mentioned above), and leave accrual will stop until I return to a pay status.

Retirement/seniority/conditional/etc: After returning from LWOP-US, all of that time has to be credited like normal service, so the time will count toward retirement, and toward fulfilling my one year on conditional status.

Health care: If I had already enrolled in FEHB, I could suspend/terminate it while on orders since I get Tricare Prime, and then have it resume automatically once I come back to civilian status. Or, if the activation results in TAMP benefits for 180 days, I could submit a waiver request to allow FEHB reinstatement to be delayed until TAMP is over. However, since I'm already getting TAMP benefits due to the RIF, I'm not even enrolling in FEHB yet, and once I'm 31 days from that benefit ending, I can submit a request and be allowed to enroll in FEHB at that time.

TSP: This one I'm still not completely clear on, but the short of what I understand is that the 1% deposit will continue to be made the entire time. After I return from LWOP-US, I can submit a request and make catch-up deposits and still get the 5% matching for the time I missed. Which is a pretty great "free money" deal. There were lots of words explaining all of it and it sounded like there wasn't much to do until I come back from LWOP-US, so I didn't dig too deeply, but that's what I got from it.

As for promotion, again I believe the time counts, but I'm in the AcqDemo program so there's no steps for us. We get yearly appraisals (in Sept/Oct) and get raises based on that. So shouldn't be a factor (not really expecting one this first year even if I was working all summer!).

Thanks for the help...please let me know if I'm missing something or made a mistake!