A Guide on Cashing out Annual Leave at Retirement

 

A lot of people lack enough information on how the cashing out of annual leave at retirement goes on. One of the most important things you should know is that the total amount of annual leave that you can be paid after you retire is determined by whether you are a postal or non-postal employee. Wondering what this means? Worry not! This article will explain in details about each of them. So, let’s learn!

 

Postal Service Employees

 

In case you are a member of Postal Career Executive Service (PCES), you are in a position to get a lump- sum payment for the amount of annual leave that is not used. The amount is not limited. On the other hand, if you are in the Executive and Administrative Scale (EAS), you are then in a position to get a lump-sum payment for over 560 and any annual leave that is earned or unused in your year of retirement. The EAS is composed of;

 

1.Postmasters

 

2.Supervisors

 

3.Managers

 

4.Other non-bargaining unit employees

 

This means that if you are on a calendar that has 560 hours, and you took no leave in between, you are supposed to get a payment of a total of 768 hours.  The employees who are covered by the union contracts can get a lump-sum of 440 hours at most.

 

Non- Postal Service Employees

 

There was a time the members of Senior Executive Service (SES) were permitted to get a lump-sum of an unlimited amount of the annual leave which was unused. That has changed now. To have 720 hours, you had to have more than the amount of your credit.  The 720-hour limit also applies to the senior level, the senior scientific and technical employees.

 

However, the rest of the non-postal employees fall under one category. Therefore, in case you are employed in the U.S or in any of its territories or possessions, you can have around 240 hours of your annual leave carried forward to your next year of leave. In overseas, employees can have even up to 360 hours.

 

When Do Leave Years Begin?

 

They all start on the first day of your first pay time in on the calendar year. At times, you can even get a lump-sum payment for more hours only if your agency restores or permits you to carry forward more hours than they should be. This can only happen if your leave was to be at the end of the year but something such as illness prevented you from taking it. Your agency could also cancel your leave for its own unavoidable reasons. Therefore, the time that you can hold on to the restored leave will vary depending on the time limit, that the agency set.

 

In cessation, to calculate your lump-sum, your agency projects the unused hours of annual leave and forwards them like you were on the payrolls. The total amount you get includes your basic pay, non-foreign area COLAs, locality pay and pay raises, that is if you had any.