Yanko v. United States

There are 10 federal holidays each year; six are celebrated on Mondays. All federal employees are paid for holidays that fall on a workday but on which the employee is not required to work. 5 C.F.R. 610.405-406. When employees are required to work on holidays, they are entitled to premium pay for their work on that day that is not overtime work, 5 U.S.C. 5546(b). Certain employees whose basic workweek of five workdays is Monday through Friday are granted days off “in-lieu-of” holidays when holidays fall on weekends. Employees whose basic workweek of five workdays is other than Monday through Friday enjoy corresponding benefits. Yanko has been employed, part-time, by the VA for several years. His regular workweek is Sunday through Thursday. Between December 15, 2009, and May 16, 2016, eight public holidays fell on either Friday or Saturday. Yanko, as a part-time employee, was not credited with an in-lieu-of holiday for any of those days, pursuant to a longstanding policy of the Office of Personnel Management. The Court of Federal Claims and Federal Circuit rejected Yanko’s claims, holding that the statute and Executive Order do not provide part-time employees with a right to in-lieu-of holidays when federal holidays fall outside the employees’ normal workweek. The term “basic workweek,” which appears in both, refers only to full-time employees. View "Yanko v. United States" on Justia Law