Q&A Session – TDY for Travel Outside "Official Duty Station"

Ask the Lawyer received the following question (paraphrased for easier reading and clarity) from a reader on a legal matter that might be of interest to the entire audience.

Q:

If I have to work a half day or more at locations that are 60 miles or greater from my normal place of work, can I be authorized for TDY?

A:

In order for your visits to other locations throughout the city to qualify as a TDY (and for you to gain compensatory time for travel to/from a temporary duty station), one must travel outside their “official duty station.”  Your “official duty station,” however, is not limited to just your work site.  Instead, one’s “official duty station” is a reasonable geographic area surrounding the work site, as designated by the Agency.  5 C.F.R. § 550.1403.  When designating the geographic area surrounding an employee’s regular work site that shall constitute an employee’s “official duty station,” the agency “may prescribe a mileage radius of not greater than 50 miles to determine whether an employee’s travel is within or outside the limits of the employee’s official duty station for determining entitlement to overtime pay for travel.”  5 C.F.R. § 550.112(j).  As such, the Agency is authorized to determine, in its discretion, the geographic region that shall consist of an employee’s official duty station, so long as that geographic region does not exceed a 50 mile radius of the location of the employee’s permanent duty station.  Therefore, in order for your single-day drives to other locations in the city to qualify as a temporary duty assignment, you must travel beyond your “official duty station.”  Because your “official duty station” cannot exceed a 50 mile radius of the location of your normal work station, your trips that are “60 miles or greater” should qualify as a TDY, and warrant compensatory travel time for you.

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