Claim for Restoration of Annual Leave

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control specialist requested reconsideration of the Claims Division's denial of his claim for restoration of 8 hours of annual leave. On the day the employee used the previously approved 8 hours of annual leave, the administrative offices where he worked were closed due to a heavy snowstorm. However, the operational portion of the facility stayed open. Upon discovering that some of the air traffic control specialists had been excused from duty without charge to leave on that day, the employee requested that his 8 hours of annual leave be changed to an excused absence. FAA denied the request pointing out that, although the administrative offices had been closed, the operational component to which the employee was assigned continued to function. FAA concluded that it did not have the authority to grant the employee an excused absence. The Claims Division supported the FAA position. Unless a Federal office is closed so that the day is a nonworkday, an employee in an authorized leave status is required to be charged leave even though other employees not on leave may have been excused for the entire workday, and even though he possibly would have been excused for the entire day had he not scheduled his leave for the day in question. In addition, the record did not support the employee's claim that the office to which he was assigned was closed. Since the office was not closed on the day in question, and since the employee was on previously authorized leave, GAO found that the charge to his leave account for that day was proper. Accordingly, the denial of the claim was affirmed.