Claim for Retroactive Promotion and Backpay

An employee requested reconsideration of the denial of his claim for a retroactive temporary promotion and backpay. The employee, a GG-6 at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), was assigned the duties of a GG-7 position for over 2 years before he was promoted to GG-7. The employee claimed the retroactive promotion on the basis that he performed the detail for more than 120 days without Civil Service Commission approval, and in these circumstances, employees are entitled to the retroactive promotion and backpay. However, during the period in question, the claimant was an employee of either AEC or its successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration. Both of these agencies were excepted from the competitive service and the General Schedule. Thus they issued their own regulations governing details and were not subject to the provisions of the Federal Personnel Manual which provide for the retroactive promotions. Since neither agency had a nondiscretionary policy limiting details or requiring temporary promotion after a specified period of detail, the employee was not subject to any policy which would allow for the temporary promotion. Therefore, the previous disallowance of his claim was affirmed.