Wounded Warriors to get more leave-
Congress and the office of personnel management (OPM) recently finalized legislation giving disabled veterans more leave time. The law known as the Wounded Warriors Leave Act was passed in 2015 and will be implemented November 2016. The act allows for veteran with at least a 30% disability rating to receive an additional 104 hours of leave which can be used to attend medical appointments related to the disability with their first year of employment or upon returning from military duty in which they become injured. This leave will be calculated in a separate category from the current sick and annual leave. With the current rise of PTSD and suicide within the Workplace, We should make a concerted effort to educate staff during the initial ICT phase I (known as IF), Annual Refresher Training, as well as through the AEP Battle Buddy program, of the additional benefits available to servicemen and women. You can read more about the Act below:
What is the VEOA? The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 provides that agencies must allow eligible veterans to apply for positions announced under merit promotion procedures when the agency is recruiting from outside its own workforce.
What does that mean? There are, generally speaking, two types of Vacancy Announcements within the Federal Civil Service – Competitive and Merit Promotion.
In a Competitive announcement, the announcement is open to all applicants that qualify, regardless of whether or not they currently work for the federal government or the federal agency posting the announcement.
In a Merit Promotion process, the Agency generally only seeks qualified internal candidates for a particular position. However, in certain situations the Agency reaches outside its own workforce for applicants in a Merit Promotion process. When this happens, the Agency MUST accept applications from preference eligible veterans outside the Agency’s workforce.
The VEOA does not guarantee selection, in fact, the VEOA does not guarantee anything other than the right to apply and the right to compete. In many situations, the Agency will post two announcements – a competitive and a merit promotion. The preference eligible veteran, under VEOA, must be given the opportunity to apply and be considered for both postings.
The VEOA is not a selection guarantee fora preference eligible veteran. It is, however, a way for preference eligible vets to get their foot in the door to Agencies that are posting only Merit Promotion announcements.
Veterans meeting the criteria for preference and who are found eligible (achieve a score of 70 or higher) either by a written examination or an evaluation of their experience and education are eligible to have either 5 or 10 points added to their numerical ratings depending on the nature of their preference. For all other positions, the names of the 10-point preference eligibles who have a compensable, service-connected disability of 10 percent or more are placed ahead of the names of all other eligibles on a given register. The names of other 10-point preference eligibles, 5-point preference eligibles, and non-veterans are listed in order of their numerical ratings.
For scientific and professional positions grade GS-9 or higher, names of all eligibles are listed in order of ratings, augmented by Veterans' Preference, if any.
Entitlement to Veterans' Preference does not guarantee a job.
A 10-point preference eligible may file an application at any time for any position:
A veteran may file an application for any examination which was open while he or she was in the Armed Forces.
Certain examinations are open only to preference eligibles as long as such applicants are available. Among these are custodian, guard, elevator operator and messenger.