Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—Today’s proposal by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to delay further the effective date of the regulation eliminating time-in-grade restrictions surrounding promotions was welcomed by the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees. The time-in-grade change was scheduled for take effect later this month.

“I am hopeful this move signals OPM’s intention to give this important matter the full consideration it needs and deserves,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

NTEU has expressed its strong opposition to eliminating the time-in-grade rules, which was initially proposed last November, and asked OPM in February to delay its implementation. OPM did move the implementation date from March to May as it sought additional comments on the rule.

The Federal Register notice published today indicates that OPM will again push back the implementation date—until mid-August—as it seeks additional comments on whether the final rule should be revoked, amended or retained.

If the time-in-grade rule were eliminated, as OPM initially proposed, employees in competitive service General Schedule positions at grades 5 and above would no longer have to serve 52 weeks in a grade before becoming eligible for promotion to the next grade level. Instead, employees would be eligible for promotion based on management’s subjective evaluation of their readiness.

“A key element in an effective civil service is both the perception and the reality of fairness and objectivity in the treatment of employees,” President Kelley said. “The time-in-grade rules help foster such an environment.”

President Kelley also attacked the proposal as a transparent final attempt by the prior administration to impose pay banding and other alternative pay systems on the civil service. Such a move, she stressed, should only take place openly, after careful study by all interested parties.

In its announcement, OPM said extending until Aug. 16 the proposed effective date of the final regulation would help avoid the unnecessary expense of allowing a rule to take effect that may later be amended or revoked as a result of the rulemaking process. It further said it is providing an additional 30-day comment period on the merits of the original proposal made last Nov. 7.

The OPM notice also made reference to a Jan. 20 White Houses directive on regulatory reviews designed to give incoming agency heads the opportunity to review proposals made by the previous administration but which had not yet taken effect. At the time of NTEU’s request for a delay in implementing the time-in-grade proposal, OPM was operating under an acting director; the president’s nominee, John Berry, has since been confirmed.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.