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:
I have worked 24 years at a certain base. Twenty-one of those years I worked as an engineer and attained a Senior Engineer position at a GS-13 rate. With the “sundown” of the H3 platform which I worked with, I was given the choice of being an engineer on other programs or a manager with the foreign military sales. I chose the latter.
That position has now been eliminated here, with no other comparable positions within 1.0 competency.
I have been offered the availability to return to the Engineering competency, but with a loss of Senior Engineer. Basically, a drop from a 13 to a 12.
How would “safe pay” be applied to my situation?
A:
If your position is abolished and you are forced to accept a lower grade, you should have both save grade for two years and the save pay indefinitely after that. If your save pay salary is higher than the highest pay of your new grade level, you are only entitled to 50 percent of any annual comparability increases, if and when those annual increases resume.
Bill Bransford is managing partner of Shaw Bransford & Roth PC.
Disclaimer: Ask a Lawyer publishes information on this website for informational purposes only. Information on this website is intended – but not promised, guaranteed, or warranted – to reflect correct, complete and current developments. In addition, the contents of the website do not constitute legal advice and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the attorney. Information from this website is not intended to be used as a substitute for specific legal advice, nor should you consider it as such. You should not act, or refrain from acting, based on information on this website without seeking specific legal advice about your particular circumstances. No attorney-client relationship between you and Ask a Lawyer’s author is created by the transmission of information to or from this site.
