Military Leave 

Permanent full-time or permanent part-time employees and temporary full-time or temporary part-time employees on appointments that exceed 1 year are eligible to use military leave for certain types of active or inactive duty in the National Guard or as a Reserve member of the Armed Forces.

Employees who are called to active duty in support of an ongoing national emergency are entitled to military leave under two separate provisions.

• 5 U.S.C. 6323(a) allows a Federal employee who is a member of the National Guard or Reserves is entitled to 15 days (120 hours) of paid military leave each fiscal year for active duty, active-duty training, or inactive-duty training. An employee on military leave under section 6323(a) receives their full civilian salary, as well as military pay. This leave accrues at the beginning of each fiscal year, and all Guard or Reserve members, including those on extended active duty, should be credited with 15 days of paid military leave on October 1 of each year.
• 5 U.S.C. 6323(b) allows employees who perform full-time military service when ordered to active duty in support of a contingency operation as defined in section 101(a)(13) of Title 10 U.S.C. (Title 10), to 22 days of military leave. Under this provision the employee is entitled to the greater of his military or civilian pay. This became effective November 24, 2003.

5 U.S.C. 6323(c) provides unlimited military leave to members of the National Guard of the District of Columbia (DC) for certain types of duty ordered or authorized under Title 39 of the District of Columbia Code.

5 U.S.C. 6323(d) provides that Reserve and National Guard technicians only are entitled to
44 workdays of military leave for duties overseas under certain conditions.

5 U.S.C. 6323(c) and 5 U.S.C. 6323(d) allow employees to use any accrued or accumulated annual leave for periods of active military duty. Employees using annual leave will receive their full civilian pay, as well as compensation for their military service.

Uniform Service

To be eligible to use military leave, the employee’s personnel record must reflect one of the following codes in the Uniform Service Status field. When military leave is entered on an employee’s Time and Attendance (T&A) report, and one of the values below is not recorded in the employee’s personnel record, the T&A rejects and military leave balances are not updated.

• 1 – Ready Reserve
• 2 – Standby
• 3 – National Guard
• 6 – Ret Mil (Reg) and Reserves/National Guard
• 7 – Ret Mil (Non-Reg) and Reserves/National Guard
• 8 – Ret Mil and DC National Guard
• 9 – DC National Guard

This information should be provided by the employee during the onboarding process and entered by the Personnel Office Identifier (POI) on the hire action. When the Uniform Status Code is erroneously processed or changes, and it is not practical to process a history correction package, the Uniform Service Status code is updated via the 006 Update Action in the Web-based Entry, Processing, Inquiry, and Correction System (EPIC Web). The effective date and authentication date of the 006 Update Action must match the effective date and authentication date of the employee's last non-exception action on the database (e.g., actions other than details, bonuses, and awards). This information is displayed in the Information/Research Inquiry System (IRIS) Program IR122, Standard Form (SF), 50 B Data Elements.

Processing the 006 to change the Uniform Status Code updates IRIS; however, it does not update EmpowHR. After verifying the Uniform Status Code changed in IRIS, the POI should manually update the code in EmpowHR. 

15 Days of Paid Military

A full-time employee working a 40-hour workweek accrues 120 hours (15 days x 8 hours) of military leave in a fiscal year, or the equivalent of three 40-hour workweeks. An employee can carry over up to 120 hours of unused military leave from the prior fiscal year.

Military leave under 6323(a) is prorated for part-time employees and for employees on uncommon tours of duty based proportionally on the number of hours in the employee's regularly scheduled biweekly pay period. To calculate the number of days used, divide 40 by the weekly tour of duty hours and multiply the result by 15. Carry out to 3 decimal places. To this total, add the military leave carryover from the database.

Enter Transaction Code (TC) 65, Regular Military Leave, to record the 15 days of military leave on an employee’s T&A. The minimum charge to military leave is 1 hour. Holidays and non-duty weekends do not count against the 15-day regular military leave ceiling. An employee may be charged military leave only for hours that the employee would otherwise have worked and received pay. Employees who request military leave for inactive duty training (which generally is 2, 4, or 6 hours in length) are charged only the amount of military leave necessary to cover the period of training and necessary travel.

Regular military leave is recorded by fiscal year. If an employee uses military leave in the pay period of the fiscal year change, a split T&A is required. The fiscal year ends/begins September 30/October 1.

22 Days of Paid Military

There are two conditions under which employees are entitled to an additional 22 days of military leave under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 6323(b).

• Reservists or National Guard members who perform military duty in support of civil authorities in the protection of life and property are eligible for an additional 22 days of military leave.
• In addition, effective November 24, 2003, employees who perform full-time military service because of a call or order to active duty in support of a contingency operation as defined in section 101(a)(13) of Title 10, are entitled to 22 days of military leave under 5 U.S.C. 6323(b).

An employee is entitled to the greater of his civilian or military pay, not both. Under
5 U.S.C. 5519, the military pay received by an individual who has been activated in support of civil authorities or a contingency operation must be credited (less any travel, transportation, or other per diem allowances) against any Federal civilian pay the employee received during the 22 workdays of military leave.

Authority Code MIL is used with Nature of Action Code (NOAC) 903, Change in Non-CPDF Data Element, to enter the hourly rate by which the employee's civilian salary must be offset. The following entry guidelines should be used for entering NOAC 903 MIL:

• A NOAC 903 MIL is not processed for reemployed annuitants or cooperators. An authorized Table Management System (TMGT) Table 063 contact submits a Web-based Special Payroll Processing System (SPPS Web) request for payment of the 22-day offset military leave for these employees.
• The Salary Share Amount is entered in the Salary Share Amount field (7 positions) as an hourly salary rate. Please note that leading zeros must be entered in this field (e.g., for $45.56, enter 0004556).
• When using NOAC 903 MIL, only the values of 0 (None) or 9 (Military Hourly Rate-Used in Off-set) may be entered in the Salary Share Code field. If a 9 is entered, a Salary Share Amount must be entered. When resetting the value from 9 to 0, the Salary Share Amount must be 0.
• The Salary Share Amount for NOAC 903 MIL is calculated by the POI.
  • The POI must calculate the Department of Defense's (DoD) gross hourly salary rate based upon data recorded on the employee's DoD pay statement for the period of service that corresponds to the dates for which the employee is scheduled to use the 22-day offset military leave.
  • Select here to view an Excel spreadsheet containing the formula for calculation.
  • Because DoD salary payments may vary from pay period to pay period, the POI is required to have a copy of each DoD pay statement for each employee covered by a corresponding request for 22-day offset military leave and recompute this value for each pay period in question.
  • When the National Finance Center (NFC) runs the pay calculations for TC 68, Regular Military Leave, for an employee with a higher calculated military hourly rate than his/her civilian hourly rate, the system will not issue payment, nor will a debt be established.
  • The employee's salary share code and the calculated DoD gross hourly rate is displayed on IRIS Program IR102, Dates & Misc Sal/Pers Data.
  • When the calculated DoD gross hourly rate for the processing period differs from the database, the POI must process a new NOAC 903 MIL to record the appropriate rate.

Enter TC 68 on the employee's T&A to pay the employee for the 22 days of military leave. The minimum charge to military leave is 1 hour. Holidays and non-duty weekends do not count against the 22-day emergency military leave ceilings. An employee may be charged military leave only for hours that the employee would otherwise have worked and received pay.

Emergency military leave must be charged to the calendar year in which the hours are used. A split T&A must be prepared to charge this leave to the appropriate calendar year whenever the calendar year ends on a day other than the beginning or end of a pay period.

DC National Guard

DC Parade and Encampment is recorded with TC 68, Descriptor 01, DC Parade and Encampment Military Leave, and any applicable prefix/suffix combinations assigned to TC 68. TC 68 with Descriptor 01 can only be used if the employee's uniform service status code is 8 (retired military and DC National Guard) or 9 (DC National Guard). TC 68 used with Descriptor Code 01 permits employees that have a Uniform Service Status code of 8 or 9 to use an unlimited amount of emergency military leave per calendar year.

DC Parade and Encampment leave balances are tracked on a calendar year basis and are reset to zero in Pay Period 1 of each year.

44 Days of Paid Leave

Up to 44 days of military leave each calendar year may be used by military reserve technicians who are on active duty without pay, as authorized pursuant to section 12315 of Title 10, under section 12301(b) or 12301(d) of Title 10 (other than active duty during a war or national emergency declared by the President or Congress). The use of this leave is for participation in operations outside the United States, its territories, and possessions.

As of the writing of this guidance, the NFC System is not programmed to automatically accumulate and pay more than 22 days of military leave. An authorized TMGT Table 063, Department/Agency/Bureau Contact, must submit an SPPS Web request to pay military leave more than 22 days in a given calendar year.