[Claim for Retroactive Temporary Promotion and Backpay]

A decision was requested by the Government Printing Office (GPO) concerning an employee's claim for a retroactive temporary promotion and backpay. The issue was whether GPO regulations establish a nondiscretionary agency policy that employees who are detailed to higher graded positions for more than 30 days are entitled to a temporary promotion. GPO argued that the timing and sequence of its regulations demonstrated that its pronouncements were implementations of GAO decisions and that, when these decisions were overruled, GPO had no basis upon which to authorize retroactive payment. The employee's union argued that the regulations did constitute a nondiscretionary policy on the issue. GAO concluded that GPO did not follow its own mandatory agency policy when it failed to give the employee a temporary promotion after he was detailed to a higher graded position for more than 30 days. Accordingly, GAO stated that the employee should be granted a retroactive temporary promotion beginning 31 days after the start of the detail.