Collapse to view only § 335.103 - Agency promotion programs.

§ 335.101 - Effect of position change on status and tenure.

(a) Status. A position change authorized by § 335.102 does not change the competitive status of an employee.

(b) Tenure. Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section and § 316.703 of this chapter, a position change authorized by § 335.102 does not change the tenure of an employee.

(c) Exceptions. (1) A career-conditional employee who is promoted, demoted, or reassigned to a position paid under chapter 45 of title 39, United States Code, or required by law to be filled on a permanent basis becomes a career employee.

(2) A career employee who is promoted, demoted, or reassigned from a position paid under chapter 45 of title 39, United States Code, or required by law to be filled on a permanent basis to a position under the career-conditional employment system becomes a career-conditional employee unless he has completed the service requirement for career tenure.

[33 FR 12428, Sept. 4, 1968]

§ 335.102 - Agency authority to promote, demote, or reassign.

Subject to § 335.103 and, when applicable, to part 319 of this chapter, an agency may:

(a) Promote, demote, or reassign a career or career-conditional employee;

(b) Reassign an employee serving under a temporary appointment pending establishment of a register to a position to which his original assignment could have been made by the same appointing officer from the same recruiting list under the same order of consideration;

(c) Promote, demote, or reassign an employee serving under an overseas limited appointment of indefinite duration or an overseas limited term appointment to another position to which an initial appointment under § 301.201, § 301.202, or § 301.203 of this chapter is authorized;

(d) Promote, demote, or reassign (1) a status quo employee and (2) an employee serving under an indefinite appointment in a competitive position, except that this authority may not be used to move an employee:

(i) From a position in which an initial overseas limited appointment is authorized to another position; or

(ii) To a position in which an initial overseas limited appointment is authorized from another position; and

(e) Promote, demote, or reassign a term employee serving on a given project to another position within the project which the agency has been authorized to fill by term appointment;

(f) Make time-limited promotions to fill temporary positions, accomplish project work, fill positions temporarily pending reorganization or downsizing, or meet other temporary needs for a specified period of not more than 5 years, unless OPM authorizes the agency to make and/or extend time-limited promotions for a longer period.

(1) The agency must give the employee advance written notice of the conditions of the time-limited promotion, including the time limit of the promotion; the reason for a time limit; the requirement for competition for promotion beyond 120 days, where applicable; and that the employee may be returned at any time to the position from which temporarily promoted, or to a different position of equivalent grade and pay, and the return is not subject to the procedures in parts 351, 432, 752, or 771 of this chapter. When an agency effects a promotion under a nondiscretionary provision and is unable to give advance notice to the employee, it must provide the notice as soon as possible after the promotion is made.

(2) This paragraph applies to a career, career-conditional, status quo, indefinite, or term employee and to an employee serving under an overseas limited appointment of indefinite duration, or an overseas limited term appointment.

[33 FR 12428, Sept. 4, 1968, as amended at 35 FR 13075, Aug. 18, 1970; 45 FR 24855, Apr. 11, 1980; 57 FR 10124, Mar. 24, 1992; 58 FR 59347, Nov. 9, 1993]

§ 335.103 - Agency promotion programs.

(a) Merit promotion plans. Except as otherwise specifically authorized by OPM, an agency may make promotions under § 335.102 of this part only to positions for which the agency has adopted and is administering a program designed to insure a systematic means of selection for promotion according to merit. These programs shall conform to the requirements of this section.

(b) Merit promotion requirements—(1) Requirement 1. Each agency must establish procedures for promoting employees that are based on merit and are available in writing to candidates. Agencies must list appropriate exceptions, including those required by law or regulation, as specified in paragraph (c) of this section. Actions under a promotion plan—whether identification, qualification, evaluation, or selection of candidates—must be made without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, age (as defined by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended), disability, genetic information (including family medical history), marital status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, labor organization affiliation or nonaffiliation, status as a parent, or any other non-merit-based factor, unless specifically designated by statute as a factor that must be taken into consideration when awarding such benefits, or retaliation for exercising rights with respect to the categories enumerated above, where retaliation rights are available, and must be based solely on job-related criteria.

(2) Requirement 2. Areas of consideration must be sufficiently broad to ensure the availability of high quality candidates, taking into account the nature and level of the positions covered. Agencies must also ensure that employees within the area of consideration who are absent for legitimate reason, e.g., on detail, on leave, at training courses, in the military service, or serving in public international organizations or on Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignments, receive appropriate consideration for promotion.

(3) Requirement 3. To be eligible for promotion or placement, candidates must meet the minimum qualification standards prescribed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Methods of evaluation for promotion and placement, and selection for training which leads to promotion, must be consistent with instructions in part 300, subpart A, of this chapter. Due weight shall be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards.

(4) Requirement 4. Selection procedures will provide for management's right to select or not select from among a group of best qualified candidates. They will also provide for management's right to select from other appropriate sources, such as reemployment priority lists, reinstatement, transfer, handicapped, or Veteran Recruitment Act eligibles or those within reach on an appropriate OPM certificate. In deciding which source or sources to use, agencies have an obligation to determine which is most likely to best meet the agency mission objectives, contribute fresh ideas and new viewpoints, and meet the agency's affirmative action goals.

(5) Requirement 5. Administration of the promotion system will include recordkeeping and the provision of necessary information to employees and the public, ensuring that individuals' rights to privacy are protected. Each agency must maintain a temporary record of each promotion sufficient to allow reconstruction of the promotion action, including documentation on how candidates were rated and ranked. These records may be destroyed after 2 years or after the program has been formally evaluated by OPM (whichever comes first) if the time limit for grievance has lapsed before the anniversary date.

(c) Covered personnel actions—(1) Competitive actions. Except as provided in paragraphs (c)(2) and (3) of this section, competitive procedures in agency promotion plans apply to all promotions under § 335.102 of this part and to the following actions:

(i) Time-limited promotions under § 335.102(f) of this part for more than 120 days to higher graded positions (prior service during the preceding 12 months under noncompetitive time-limited promotions and noncompetitive details to higher graded positions counts toward the 120-day total). A temporary promotion may be made permanent without further competition provided the temporary promotion was originally made under competitive procedures and the fact that might lead to a permanent promotion was made known to all potential candidates;

(ii) Details for more than 120 days to a higher grade position or to a position with higher promotion potential (prior service during the preceding 12 months under noncompetitive details to higher graded positions and noncompetitive time-limited promotions counts toward the 120-day total);

(iii) Selection for training which is part of an authorized training agreement, part of a promotion program, or required before an employee may be considered for a promotion as specified in § 410.302 of this chapter;

(iv) Reassignment or demotion to a position with more promotion potential than a position previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service (except as permitted by reduction-in-force regulations);

(v) Transfer to a position at a higher grade or with more promotion potential than a position previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service; and

(vi) Reinstatement to a permanent or temporary position at a higher grade or with more promotion potential than a position previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service if the individual did not wait 1 year or more after separating from Federal employment before applying for reinstatement, or did not receive a rating of record for his or her most recent career or career-conditional position of at least Fully Successful (or equivalent).

(2) Noncompetitive actions. Competitive procedures do not apply to:

(i) A promotion resulting from the upgrading of a position without significant change in the duties and responsibilities due to issuance of a new classification standard or the correction of an initial classification error; and

(ii) A position change permitted by reduction-in-force procedures in part 351 of this chapter.

(3) Discretionary actions. Agencies may at their discretion except the following actions from competitive procedures of this section:

(i) A promotion without current competition of an employee who was appointed in the competitive from a civil service register, by direct hire, by noncompetitive appointment or noncompetitive conversion, or under competitive promotion procedures for an assignment intended to prepare the employee for the position being filled (the intent must be made a matter of record and career ladders must be documented in the promotion plan);

(ii) A promotion resulting from an employee's position being classified at a higher grade because of additional duties and responsibilies;

(iii) A temporary promotion, or detail to a higher grade position or a position with known promotion potential, of 120 days or less;

(iv) Promotion to a grade previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service (or in another merit system with which OPM has an interchange agreement approved under § 6.7 of this chapter) from which an employee was separated or demoted for other than performance or conduct reasons;

(v) Promotion, reassignment, demotion, transfer, reinstatement, or detail to a position having promotion potential no greater than the potential of a position an employee currently holds or previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service (or in another merit system with which OPM has an interchange agreement approved under § 6.7 of this chapter) and did not lose because of performance or conduct reasons; and

(vi) Consideration of a candidate not given proper consideration in a competitive promotion action.

(vii) Appointments of career SES appointees with competitive service reinstatement eligibility to any position for which they qualify in the competitive service at any grade or salary level, including Senior-Level positions established under 5 CFR Part 319—Employment in Senior-Level and Scientific and Professional positions.

(viii) Reinstatement in accordance with 5 CFR part 315 to any position in the competitive service for which the individual is qualified at a higher grade level or with more promotion potential than a career or career-conditional position previously held by the individual; provided: The individual has been separated for at least one year before applying for reinstatement, and the individual must have received a rating of record for his or her most recent career or career-conditional position of at least Fully Successful (or equivalent).

(d) Grievances. Employees have the right to file a complaint relating to a promotion action. Such complaints shall be resolved under appropriate grievance procedures. The standards for adjudicating complaints are set forth in part 300, subpart A, of this chapter. While the procedures used by an agency to identify and rank qualified candidates may be proper subjects for formal complaints or grievances, nonselection from among a group of properly ranked and certified candidates is not an appropriate basis for a formal complaint or grievance. There is no right of appeal of OPM, but OPM may conduct investigations of substantial violations of OPM requirements.

[59 FR 67121, Dec. 29, 1994, as amended at 63 FR 34258, June 24, 1998; 70 FR 72067, Dec. 1, 2005; 79 FR 43922, July 29, 2014; 86 FR 30379, June 8, 2021]

§ 335.104 - Eligibility for career ladder promotion.

No employee shall receive a career ladder promotion unless his or her current rating of record under part 430 of this chapter is “Fully Successful” (level 3) or higher. In addition, no employee may receive a career ladder promotion who has a rating below “Fully Successful” on a critical element that is also critical to performance at the next higher grade of the career ladder.

[51 FR 8411, Mar. 11, 1986]

§ 335.105 - Notice of job announcements to OPM.

Under 5 U.S.C. 3330, agencies are required to report job announcements to OPM for vacancies for which an agency will accept applications from outside the agency's work force. This requirement is implemented through part 330, subpart A of this chapter.

[66 FR 63906, Dec. 11, 2001, as amended at 75 FR 67605, Nov. 3, 2010]

§ 335.106 - Special selection procedures for certain veterans under merit promotion.

Preference eligibles or veterans who have been separated under honorable conditions from the armed forces after completing (as determined by the agency) 3 or more years of continuous active military service may compete for vacancies under merit promotion when an agency accepts applications from individuals outside its own workforce. Those veterans selected will be given career or career conditional appointments under § 315.611 of this chapter.

[65 FR 14432, Mar. 17, 2000]