Retroactive Appointment

The U.S. Federal Labor Relations Council requested authority to make retroactive appointments for two employees. The employees had been placed in a lower grade of appointment when they were hired than they would have been had there not been an administrative failure to carry out the nondiscretionary agency policy which placed them at the higher grade. While the general rule is that retroactive changes in salary may not be made in the absence of a statute so providing, retroactive adjustments have been permitted in cases where errors occurred as the result of a failure to carry out agency policy. Accordingly, the employees were allowed to have their appointments retroactively changed to the higher grade and paid the appropriate backpay.