VA Employees Receiving Premium Pay

A group of Veterans Administration (VA) employees requested the restoration of annual leave charged for absences on holidays. Five of the employees, who regularly performed standby duty and received premium pay, were appealing a previous GAO settlement which denied their requests for recrediting of leave since the VA did not recredit the accounts prior to a decision which precluded any retroactive adjustments. The employees contended that the VA improperly deferred action required to restore the leave within the established time frame of entitlement, thus resulting in the decision precluding the retroactive adjustments. It was held that since the leave was not recredited prior to the deadline for retroactive adjustments, and since there was no authority provided for the recredit of leave thereafter, the previous decision was sustained. A sixth employee's request for restoration of leave had not been previously considered by GAO. The employee was excused from performing his regular duties on holidays, but was required to remain at his residence in a standby status and receive standby premium pay. It was held that since the employee was not actually relieved from duty on the holidays, he should not have been charged leave and should be recredited for the holidays that he was on standby status at home.