Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is why so many agencies want to delay the furlough days until the end of the fiscal year and then pack them in. Why not one a pay period or one a month spread out evenly? It seems consolidating them has a more acute adverse impact.

If you go more than 80 hours of Leave without pay (LWOP), you stop accruing leave for any pay period in which LWOP is taken from that point on, during that fiscal year. That could be one reason.

Also, I think maybe DOJ is hoping congress will get itself in gear and decide on a budget sooner rather than later (at the end of fiscal yr),... wishful thinking!!!

No, you lose leave for that pay period, and then when you get it again until you accumulate another 80 hours of LWOP (then you lose it again for that pay period). The spacing out of furlough days would have no effect on that.

I have taken >80 hrs of LWOP in a fiscal year, and every two-week pay period that I took any amount of LWOP once I reached the cumulative 80 hrs for the fiscal year, I did not accrue leave. I think in the instance that DOJ spreads out the furlough days, this problem will happen. We will continue to accrue lwop until the cumulative 80 hrs has been reached (10 furlough days) and after that we will not accrue leave.

That is, unless there are specific lwop rules that apply to furloughs???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is why so many agencies want to delay the furlough days until the end of the fiscal year and then pack them in. Why not one a pay period or one a month spread out evenly? It seems consolidating them has a more acute adverse impact.

If you go more than 80 hours of Leave without pay (LWOP), you stop accruing leave for any pay period in which LWOP is taken from that point on, during that fiscal year. That could be one reason.

Also, I think maybe DOJ is hoping congress will get itself in gear and decide on a budget sooner rather than later (at the end of fiscal yr),... wishful thinking!!!

No, you lose leave for that pay period, and then when you get it again until you accumulate another 80 hours of LWOP (then you lose it again for that pay period). The spacing out of furlough days would have no effect on that.

Anonymous wrote:We've been told that our component is well-positioned to avoid furloughs (have been squirreling away money for quite some time) so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Our agencies is one of those as well, but we had to use our surplus to pay for the fact that BOP has shitty fiscal management. I guess you just can't let federal inmates on the street. My unofficial position is, let them out...you want to see what sequestration looks like, here it is.

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is why so many agencies want to delay the furlough days until the end of the fiscal year and then pack them in. Why not one a pay period or one a month spread out evenly? It seems consolidating them has a more acute adverse impact.

If you go more than 80 hours of Leave without pay (LWOP), you stop accruing leave for any pay period in which LWOP is taken from that point on, during that fiscal year. That could be one reason.

Also, I think maybe DOJ is hoping congress will get itself in gear and decide on a budget sooner rather than later (at the end of fiscal yr),... wishful thinking!!!

What I don't get is why so many agencies want to delay the furlough days until the end of the fiscal year and then pack them in. Why not one a pay period or one a month spread out evenly? It seems consolidating them has a more acute adverse impact.

We were told all would be treated equally except for BOP obviously (makes sense). Most current I heard was 20-22 to not trigger a RIF (not necessarily getting rid of a position but you start losing benefits - not accruing leave, retirement get effected, etc).

FY14 will be very bad and if a budget isn't enacted it will get worse for the next few years while more cost saving measures are implemented and a reduction in force by attrition is implemented. The cuts are for the next 10 years.

We've been told all agencies in DOJ will be treated "equally" - all agencies the same number of days and it will be decided by DOJ not each individual agency.

We've been told that our component is well-positioned to avoid furloughs (have been squirreling away money for quite some time) so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:that was for 2013, they are talking about furloughs for fiscal year 2014 which starts in October. I heard 2014 is going to be very lean.... heard 23 days and i also heard 14 from someone in finance division

Seems like that would depend a lot of which division, wouldn't it? I imagine "DOJ" furloughs could look very different at FBI vs BOP vs JMD vs OJP, etc.

I suppose it could fluctuate wildly, but big DOJ needs to save the money so it seems "fair" to take from everyone. Who knows- they will be the ultimate decider and we have been told to prepare, squirrel money away, expect it etc.

Anonymous wrote:that was for 2013, they are talking about furloughs for fiscal year 2014 which starts in October. I heard 2014 is going to be very lean.... heard 23 days and i also heard 14 from someone in finance division

Seems like that would depend a lot of which division, wouldn't it? I imagine "DOJ" furloughs could look very different at FBI vs BOP vs JMD vs OJP, etc.

that was for 2013, they are talking about furloughs for fiscal year 2014 which starts in October. I heard 2014 is going to be very lean.... heard 23 days and i also heard 14 from someone in finance division

I thought they had announced no furloughs. When did this get raised again?

Do furlough days have to be taken in 8 hour increments or can you do more of them in 4 hour increments?