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Reconsideration in View of Wilson v. United States

B-203564 May 25, 1982
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Highlights

GAO was requested to comment on the impact of a Court of Claims decision, which denied a retroactive temporary promotion for an overlong detail, on earlier court decisions which granted the promotions. Those decisions were based on a Civil Service Commission ruling which held that the Federal Personnel Manual granted temporary promotions in cases where agencies failed to receive prior Commission approval for the overlong detail. The plaintiff in the current Court of Claims decision sought a retroactive temporary promotion and backpay based on those decisions. In the current case, the Court challenged the decision's bases, claiming that no current Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) mandatory provisions required temporary promotion of an employee in such circumstances. Therefore, the absence of a mandatory provision defeated the employee's entitlement to a temporary promotion. Although the decision represented an overruling of the earlier decisions, it was consistent with the current views of OPM and the Department of Justice. Since the decision affected only pending and future claims, prior decisions or claim settlements will not be disturbed. The Back Pay Act and its amendments did not modify or overrule the basic premise that no current statute or regulation requires a temporary promotion incident to an overlong detail.

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