Claim for Compensation

An advance decision was requested concerning the claim of a Forest Service employee. The issue in question was whether the employee should be compensated as if he were at the higher grade for the period he was improperly appointed at that grade and for the period he was subsequently separated until properly reappointed to the higher grade. The employee's appointment was found to be improper soon after he reported for duty. At the time he was initially hired, the selecting official believed that he was eligible for reinstatement due to previous employment. The employee was terminated and was subsequently appointed to a temporary lower grade level. After he had served two weeks in that position, the Forest Service determined that the employee was within reach of the Office of Personnel Management register, and he was properly given a career-conditional appointment to the higher level. The employee then claimed a lump-sum payment of the accrual of annual leave and sick leave. In addition, he claimed reimbursement for retirement contributions he would have made at the higher level. Further, the employee argued that he was entitled to reimbursement for the delay in the receipt of his step increase from the time he was appointed to when he was originally improperly appointed. Finally, he sought the difference between the grades when he was temporarily appointed at the lower level. GAO held that the employee was entitled to a lump-sum payment for his accrued annual leave and to a recredit of the sick leave he accumulated during the period of his erroneous appointment. He was not entitled to a lump-sum payment for sick leave, and there is no basis on which the employee may be paid for retirement contributions he did not make. With regard to his step increase, no entitlement exists to backpay for the period after termination of the original appointment since neither the termination nor the appointment to the temporary lower grade constituted unwarranted or unjustified personnel action under the Back Pay Act. The employee was not entitled to the pay of the higher grade for other than the period when he was serving under the initial appointment and from the date he was properly reappointed to that position.