[Claim for Restoration of Forfeited Annual Leave]

An Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employee appealed a decision of the Claims Group which denied his claim for restoration of 4 hours of forfeited annual leave. The issue on appeal was whether the failure of an agency to advise its employees how to schedule the use of their annual leave to take into account the possibility that the President would decree that employees on approved leave would not be charged leave for the last half of the workday on Christmas Eve constituted administrative error. The employee requested and received approval to use annual leave in the "use or lose" category. However, the President encouraged Federal agencies to excuse employees for the last half of the workday on Christmas Eve and not to charge employees who were on approved leave. The employee was granted 4 hours of administrative leave which caused his annual leave to exceed by 4 hours the maximum carryover allowed by the applicable statute. The Claims Group concluded that there was no authority under that statute to restore the 4 hours of forfeited annual leave. However, under that statute annual leave which has been forfeited may be restored if the forfeiture resulted from an administrative error when the error causes a loss of annual leave otherwise accruable. The failure of OPM to counsel its employees does not constitute an administrative error. In addition, the record did not disclose that OPM has a regulation which required that its employees be counseled concerning possible forfeiture of annual leave. Accordingly, the employee did not qualify for the restoration of annual leave forfeited based upon an administrative error by OPM.