Entitlement to Retroactive Promotion

A civilian employee made a claim for a retroactive promotion and backpay on the basis that the position he was serving in was reclassified to a higher-grade level and that the administrative office failed to act timely. Ten months passed between the time management originally submitted the request to promote the claimant and the eventual promotion action. Although the position action request was processed as promptly as possible by the personnel office, it was delayed because the request was erroneously processed under the Office of the Secretary's Merit Promotion Plan. When a position has been reclassified to a higher grade, an agency must either promote the incumbent, if qualified, or remove him. The reasonable time within which the incumbent should be either promoted or removed from his position expires at the beginning of the fourth pay period after the date of the reclassification action. If the personnel office had not erred by processing the promotion action as a merit promotion action, the claimant could have been promoted as early as the first pay period following the date of reclassification. Due to these circumstances, GAO determined that the claimant's promotion may be made retroactive and that he was entitled to backpay for the salary differential.