[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 143 (Tuesday, July 27, 1999)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 40506-40509]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-19103]


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OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

5 CFR Part 330

RIN 3206-AI39


Career Transition Assistance for Surplus and Displaced Federal 
Employees

AGENCY: Office of Personnel Management.

ACTION: Interim rule with request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Personnel Management is issuing interim 
regulations to extend current career transition assistance programs 
which assist Federal employees displaced from their jobs by downsizing. 
In 1995 these programs were implemented as a temporary replacement for 
the Interagency Placement Program, with a sunset date of September 30, 
1999. These interim regulations extend the sunset date for an 
additional 2 years. These regulations also make several technical 
changes and clarifications in the career transition programs.

DATES: Interim rule effective July 27, 1999; comments must be received 
on or before September 27, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to the Workforce Restructuring 
Office, Employment Service, Room 6500, U.S. Office of Personnel 
Management, 1900 E Street NW., Washington, DC 20415-9700, or delivered 
to Room 6500, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Washington, DC, 
between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or faxed to (202) 606-2329.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Jacqueline Yeatman on (202) 606-0960, 
FAX (202) 606-2329, TDD (202) 606-0023, email: [email protected] .

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On September 12, 1995, the President issued a memorandum entitled, 
``Career Transition Assistance for Federal Employees,'' that directs 
Federal Executive agencies to establish career transition assistance 
programs to help surplus and displaced workers find other jobs as the 
Federal Government undergoes downsizing and restructuring. As set forth 
in the memorandum, such programs are to be developed in partnership 
with labor and management, in accordance with guidance and regulations 
provided by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
    OPM issued interim regulations on December 29, 1995, at 60 FR 
67281, which were developed in cooperation

[[Page 40507]]

with representatives from the Interagency Advisory Group of Personnel 
Directors and employee unions. Those regulations provided the framework 
for implementing the President's directive, the purpose of which is to 
maximize employment opportunities for displaced workers, both within 
and outside the Federal Government. Those regulations also suspended, 
through September 30, 1999, the operation of the Interagency Placement 
Program, the then-existing program to assist displaced workers.
    In place of 5 CFR part 330 subpart C, Interagency Placement 
Program, OPM established subpart F in part 330, Agency Career 
Transition Assistance Plans (CTAP) for Local Surplus and Displaced 
Employees, and subpart G in part 330, Interagency Career Transition 
Assistance Plan (ICTAP) for Displaced Employees.

Career Transition Assistance

    The programs set up in 1995 under these regulations incorporated a 
new concept in career transition assistance for displaced workers. 
Instead of having OPM attempt to place surplus workers in new jobs from 
a centralized inventory (the traditional government-wide approach used 
to assist displaced Federal employees under the old Interagency 
Placement Program in subpart C of part 330), the new career transition 
program empowers individual workers to find, apply for, and exercise 
selection priority for specific vacancies in which they are interested. 
It seeks to motivate and reinforce an employee's self-interest in 
finding work opportunities by giving displaced workers the resources 
and hiring priority necessary to support their transition to other 
employment.
    Career transition assistance consists of four components:
     Programs to provide career transition services to the 
agency's surplus and displaced employees;
     Policies for retraining displaced employees for new career 
opportunities;
     Policies that require the selection of a well-qualified 
surplus or displaced internal agency employee who applies for a vacant 
position in the commuting area, before selecting any other candidate 
from either within or outside the agency; and
     Policies that require the selection of a well-qualified 
displaced employee from another agency who applies for a vacant 
position in the commuting area before selecting any other candidate 
from outside the agency.
    Federal agencies are required to implement Career Transition 
Assistance Plans to provide career transition services to their surplus 
and displaced employees, and give special selection priority to these 
workers. These regulations set minimum standards for the plans, which 
can be supplemented at the agency's discretion.
    At the time of the issuance of the President's directive, the 
Department of Defense (DOD) already operated an effective program, the 
Priority Placement Program, which provides selection priority to 
surplus and displaced employees within the Department. This continuing 
program is not subject to the special selection requirement affecting 
employees under the Career Transition Assistance Plan. The Department 
of Defense is subject to the other elements of these regulations and 
its employees are eligible for the benefits provided by these programs.

Program Results to Date

    The interim regulations implementing the President's instructions 
were effective on February 29, 1996, at 60 FR 67281, and were issued in 
final form on June 9, 1997, at 62 FR 31315, with a minor correction 
issued on June 26, 1997, at 62 FR 34385. Under those regulations, each 
Executive Branch agency has established and maintains a Career 
Transition Assistance Plan for its surplus and displaced employees and 
accords selection priority for vacancies to those employees--first to 
its own surplus and displaced employees and then to displaced employees 
from other Federal agencies. During FY 1998, 909 non-Defense employees 
and 8,554 Defense employees facing possible reductions in force (RIF) 
were given career transition assistance. A total of 222 non-Defense and 
4,050 surplus and displaced employees from Defense agencies were 
selected for other jobs within their agencies. A total of 183 displaced 
employees were rehired through their agency's reemployment priority 
list, another 273 displaced employees who were RIF-separated by one 
agency were selected for vacancies in different Federal agencies 
through the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program.
    The net result of the President's program in the past three years 
has been that 52,803 displaced employees facing RIF-separations have 
been given career transition assistance and selection priority for 
other jobs; 21,892 surplus and displaced Federal employees have been 
placed into other positions within their agencies; 1,921 displaced 
Federal employees have been rehired through the Reemployment Priority 
List by the agency from which they were separated; 1,066 displaced 
Federal employees who were RIF-separated by one agency have been 
selected for positions in other agencies. The latter figure, a result 
of the ``employee empowerment'' concept embodied in the Presidential 
directive, is over five times as many interagency selections as were 
made during the last three years that the old Interagency Placement 
Program was in operation, prior to the adoption of the career 
transition program.
    During the same period, two Internet websites were set up to assist 
surplus and displaced Federal employees in finding other employment. 
OPM's USAJOBS Internet site (http://www.usajobs.opm.gov) provides 
information on Federal employment and complete vacancy listings which 
are updated daily. A joint website operated by the U.S. Department of 
Labor in partnership with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 
entitled ``Planning Your Future--A Federal Employee's Survival Guide'' 
(http://safetynet.doleta.gov), provides a wide range of critical 
information to Federal employees who are affected by downsizing and are 
attempting to make successful career transitions, especially to 
occupations in the private sector. (Additional information on these 
sites and other career transition resources is available from OPM's 
Workforce Restructuring Office at (202) 606-0960; (202) 606-2329, FAX.)

New Interim Regulations To Extend Career Transition Programs

    The career transition regulations were originally scheduled to be 
in effect through September 30, 1999, as a temporary replacement for 
the Interagency Placement Program (IPP). Because of the success of the 
career transition program, general support for extending the current 
program rather than returning to the less successsful IPP, and the 
continuing need for effective assistance programs during ongoing 
restructuring, OPM is now issuing interim regulations that extend the 
September 30, 1999, sunset date that is found in Secs. 330.603 and 
330.702, for an additional 2 years, through September 30, 2001. At the 
same time, the Interagency Placement Program (subpart C of part 330) 
will remain suspended for this 2-year period. This 2-year extension 
will allow agencies and employees to continue benefitting from these 
successful placement programs during what we expect will be a period of 
continued restructuring, while also allowing OPM to gather additional 
data and input from stakeholders on the current career transition 
programs and determine if they should be made permanent, replaced, or 
modified in the future.

[[Page 40508]]

Technical Changes to the Career Transition Regulations

    Major changes will not be made to these programs without 
consultation with management and labor. However, OPM is incorporating a 
number of technical changes to clarify the existing career transition 
program:

Eligibility for Special Selection Priority Under the Career Transition 
Assistance Program (CTAP)

    Revised Sec. 330.605(b) makes the criteria for eligibility for 
special selection priority as a surplus employee consistent with the 
definition of a surplus employee in Sec. 330.604(i)(1).

Expiration of Special Selection Priority Under CTAP

    This section clarifies under what conditions a surplus employee may 
lose his or her eligibility under Sec. 330.605(c)(1).

Clarification of Posting Requirements Under CTAP

    Section 330.607(b) clarifies long-standing policy that agencies 
need not post internal vacancies if they are able to determine and 
document that there are no agency CTAP eligibles in the particular 
local commuting area where the vacancy is located. Since most agencies 
track the number and locations of their CTAP eligibles, this allows 
them to continue this practice with appropriate documentation rather 
than posting vacancies for surplus or displaced employees in locations 
where they have no employees in this category.

Definition of a Displaced Employee Under the Interagency Career 
Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP)

    This section adds a specific reference from Sec. 353.110(b) to the 
definition of a displaced employee under Sec. 330.703(b)(3).

Order of Selection for Filling Vacancies From Outside the Agency's 
Workforce Under ICTAP

    Revised Sec. 330.705(a)(3) clarifies that two groups of employees 
with statutory rights to selection priority are entitled to selection 
for Federal vacancies on the same basis as ICTAP eligible candidates: 
(1) Employees of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections who 
are separated from service as a result of the closure of the Lorton 
Correctional Complex and are eligible for selection priority under 
subpart K of part 330; and (2) displaced Panama Canal Zone employees 
eligible under subpart L of part 330.

Exceptions From CTAP and/or ICTAP When Filling Vacancies From Outside 
the Agency's Workforce

    Revised Secs. 330.606(d)(27) and 330.705(c)(8) clarify that 
situations may arise in which agencies are required to carry out 
certain movements of employees to one or more other agencies as a 
result of an interagency (1) Transfer of function; (2) mass transfer; 
or (3) reorganization. Because such actions are mandated by statute and 
do not involve creation of new vacancies, such actions can be carried 
out without regard to CTAP or ICTAP restrictions.
    The new Sec. 330.705(c)(17) clarifies that interagency details are 
not subject to ICTAP.
    New Sec. 330.705(c)(18) clarifies that the exception of job swaps 
from CTAP in Sec. 330.606(d)(5) also applies to ICTAP under interagency 
job swap programs individually approved by OPM.
    New Sec. 330.705(c)(19) makes clear that persons who are fully 
eligible for ICTAP coverage may be selected by an agency without 
announcing or reporting the vacancy, generally as long as the new 
position has promotion potential no greater than the potential of the 
position the employee is leaving or previously held on a permanent 
basis in the competitive service. This policy was previously implied 
but was not explicit. This new section is consistent with the 
provisions and underlying intent of Sec. 330.707(a) of this title which 
addresses reporting vacancies and parallels the discretionary actions 
provisions of Sec. 335.103(c)(3)(v) of this title.
    New Sec. 330.606(d)(29) and Sec. 330.705(c)(20) allow for the 
voluntary transfer of employees from one agency to another under a 
Memorandum of Understanding or similar type of agreement when both 
agencies and the affected employees agree to the arrangement.
    New Sec. 330.606(d)(30) allows agencies to move employees who are 
under established mobility agreements as part of a planned rotational 
program within the agency without regard to CTAP eligibles in the new 
location.

Waiver of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

    Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B), I find that good cause exists 
for waiving the general notice of proposed rulemaking. Extending these 
career transition programs will provide continuity of the special 
selection programs for surplus and displaced Federal employees beyond 
the present expiration date of September 30, 1999. This change is 
necessary and critical to assist agencies' restructuring efforts 
through the remainder FY 1999 and beyond. Immediate elimination of the 
program's current September 30, 1999, expiration date will ensure that 
employees affected by reductions in force will receive the full year of 
career transition benefits, following separation, that they are 
entitled to under the regulations.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    I certify that this regulation will not have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities because it affects 
only certain Government employees.

Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Review

    This rule has been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget 
in accordance with Executive Order 12866.

List of Subjects in 5 CFR Part 330

    Armed forces reserves, Government employees.

Office of Personnel Management.
Janice R. Lachance,
Director.

    Accordingly, OPM is amending part 330 of title 5, Code of Federal 
Regulations, as follows:

PART 330--RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND PLACEMENT (GENERAL)

    1. The authority citation for part 330 is revised to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 5 U.S.C. 1302, 3301, 3302; E.O. 10577, 3 CFR 1954-58 
Comp., p. 218; Sec. 330.102 also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3327; subpart 
B also issued under 5 U.S.C. 3315 and 8151; Sec. 330.401 also issued 
under 5 U.S.C. 3310; subparts F-G also issued under Presidential 
memorandum dated September 12, 1995, entitled ``Career Transition 
Assistance for Federal Employees'; subpart H also issued under 5 
U.S.C. 8337(h) and 8457(b); subpart I also issued under 106 Stat. 
2720, 5 U.S.C. 3301 note and sec. 4432 of Pub. L. 102-484, 106 Stat. 
2315; subpart K also issued under sec. 11203 of Pub. L. 105-33, 111 
Stat. 251.

Subpart C--Placement Assistance Programs for Displaced Employees

    2. In Sec. 330.301, paragraph (b) is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 330.301  Coverage.

* * * * *
    (b) The operation of this subpart will be suspended from February 
29, 1996 through September 30, 2001. In the interim, placement 
assistance will be provided in accordance with subparts B, F, and G of 
this part. OPM may extend this date if it determines that the Federal 
Government is still

[[Page 40509]]

experiencing an emergency downsizing situation.

Subpart F--Agency Career Transition Assistance Plans (CTAP) for 
Local Surplus and Displaced Employees

    3. Section 330.603 is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 330.603  Duration.

    This subpart will expire on September 30, 2001, unless the Office 
of Personnel Management extends the program based on its determination 
that the Federal Government is still experiencing an emergency 
downsizing situation.
    4. In Sec. 330.605, paragraphs (b) and (c)(1) are revised to read 
as follows.


Sec. 330.605  Eligibility.

* * * * *
    (b) Eligibility for special selection priority begins on the date 
the agency issues the employee a reduction in force separation notice, 
certificate of expected separation, notice of proposed separation for 
declining a directed reassignment or transfer of function outside of 
the local commuting area, or other official agency certification.
    (c) * * *
    (1) The RIF separation date, the date of the employee's 
resignation, retirement, or separation from the agency (including 
separation under adverse action procedures for declining a directed 
reassignment or transfer of function or similar relocation to another 
local commuting area).
* * * * *
    5. In Sec. 330.606, paragraph (d)(27) is revised to read as follows 
and paragraphs (d) (29) and (30) are added.


Sec. 330.606  Order of selection for filling vacancies from within the 
agency.

* * * * *
    (d) * * *
    (27) Noncompetitive movement of employees between agencies as a 
result of interagency reorganization, interagency transfer of function, 
or interagency mass transfer; and
* * * * *
    (29) The voluntary transfer of employees from one agency to another 
under a Memorandum of Understanding or similar type of agreement when 
both agencies and the affected employees agree to the transfer.
    (30) The reassignment of an employee whose position description or 
other written mobility agreement provides for reassignments outside the 
commuting area as part of a planned rotational program within the 
agency.
    6. In Sec. 330.607, paragraph (b) is revised to read as follows.


Sec. 330.607  Notification of surplus and displaced employees.

* * * * *
    (b) Agencies must take reasonable steps to ensure eligible 
employees are notified of all vacancies the agency is filling in 
locations where there are CTAP eligibles, and what is required for them 
to be determined well-qualified for the vacancies. If there are no CTAP 
eligibles in a local commuting area, the agency may document this fact 
as an alternative to posting the vacancy under the CTAP program.
* * * * *

Subpart G--Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan for 
Displaced Employees

    7. Section 330.702 is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 330.702  Duration.

    This subpart will expire on September 30, 2001, unless the Office 
of Personnel Management extends the program based on its determination 
that the Federal Government is still experiencing an emergency 
downsizing situation.
    8. In Sec. 330.703, paragraph (b)(3) is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 330.703  Definitions.

* * * * *
    (b) * * *
    (3) A former career or career-conditional employee who was 
separated because of a compensable injury or illness as provided under 
the provisions of subchapter I of chapter 81 of title 5, United States 
Code, whose compensation has been terminated and whose former agency is 
unable to place the individual as required by Sec. 353.110(b) of this 
chapter;
* * * * *
    9. In Sec. 330.705, paragraph (a)(3) is revised, paragraph (c)(8) 
is revised, and paragraphs (c)(17), (c)(18), (c)(19) and (c)(20) are 
added to read as follows:


Sec. 330.705  Order of selection in filling vacancies from outside the 
agency's workforce.

    (a) * * *
    (3) Any of the following three conditions:
    (i) Current or former Federal employees displaced from other 
agencies under this subpart;
    (ii) Current or former employees displaced from the District of 
Columbia Department of Corrections eligible under subpart K of this 
part, or
    (iii) Displaced Panama Canal Zone employees eligible under subpart 
L of this part.
* * * * *
    (c) * * *
    (8) Noncompetitive movement of employees between agencies as a 
result of interagency reorganization, interagency transfer of function, 
or interagency mass transfer;
* * * * *
    (17) Interagency details;
    (18) Exchange of employees between agencies to avoid involuntary 
separations, under plans approved by OPM (i.e., interagency job swaps); 
and
    (19) Transfer, reassignment, or reinstatement of an individual who 
meets the eligibility requirements of Sec. 330.704 to a position having 
promotion potential no greater than the potential of a position the 
individual currently holds or previously held on a permanent basis in 
the competitive service and did not lose because of performance or 
conduct reasons.
    (20) The voluntary transfer of employees from one agency to another 
under a Memorandum of Understanding or similar type of agreement when 
both agencies and the affected employees agree to the transfer.

[FR Doc. 99-19103 Filed 7-26-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6325-01-P