§536.301. Mandatory pay retention. — Inbound Citations

(a) Subject to the requirements in § 536.102 and this section, an authorized agency official may provide pay retention to an employee not entitled to pay retention under § 536.301, but whose payable rate of basic pay otherwise would be reduced (after application of any applicable geographic conversion under § 536.303(a)) as the result of a management action. This includes a management action to move an employee's position, without a break in service of more than 3 days, from a Department of Defense or Coast Guard nonappropriated fund instrumentality (as defined in 5 U.S.C. 2105(c)) to a position under a covered pay system in the same agency.

(a) If, in conjunction with a pay action that may entitle the employee to pay retention under §§ 536.301 or 536.302, an employee's official worksite is changed to a new location where different pay schedules apply, the agency must convert the employee's rate(s) of basic pay to the applicable pay schedule(s) in the new location before applying the pay retention rules in this subpart or any other simultaneous pay action (other than a general pay adjustment). The agency must identify the highest applicable rate range that would apply to the employee's position of record before the pay action as if that position were stationed at the new official worksite and determine the employee's converted payable rate of basic pay based on the step (or relative position in range for a GM employee) in that range that corresponds to the employee's step (or relative position in range for a GM employee) before the pay action. A reduction in an employee's payable rate of basic pay resulting from this geographic conversion is not a basis for entitlement to pay retention. The pay retention rules in this subpart must be applied as if the employee's payable rate of basic pay after geographic conversion is the employee's existing payable rate of basic pay in effect immediately before the action.

(1) When an employee becomes entitled to pay retention under § 536.301 or 536.302 or undergoes a change in his or her position of record or pay schedule while receiving a retained rate (when the terminating conditions for pay retention under § 536.308 do not apply), the agency must determine the employee's pay retention entitlement following the rules in this section.

(c) In applying a new or revised wage schedule, the scheduled rate of pay of an employee paid at one of the steps of the employee's grade on an old wage schedule shall be adjusted upward to the newly adjusted rate for the same numerical step of the grade whenever there is an increase in rates. Except when there is a decrease in wage rates because of a statutory reduction in scheduled rates, the employee is entitled to pay retention as provided in 5 CFR 536.301(a)(8).