Orderly Shutdown:
If a gap in funding occurs, non-essential operations will be discontinued effective midnight 30 September 2013 Eastern Daylight Time. Employees will be expected to report to work on their next scheduled work day upon the lapse in appropriations to prepare for the suspension of operations (Tuesday morning, OCT 01 for most employees). Employees will report to their supervisor and receive a furlough notice letter. They will then conduct any actions required to conduct an orderly shutdown of their activities (secure equipment, properly secure documents, change phone messages, set up email "out of office" notifications, etc.). If leave in lieu of furlough is authorized, leave requests will have to be submitted/approved prior to receiving the furlough letter. It is expected that these activities should take less than four (4) hours. Employees will be released by their supervisor once these activities are complete.
Furloughed employees who are scheduled to telework may, if approved by their supervisor, perform these shutdown activities from their telework location provided an existing telework agreement is in place. Supervisors may at their discretion allow other employees to conduct shutdown activities from a remote location, even without an existing telework agreement; if the nature of the employee's shut down activities is de minimus (I.E. can be completed in approximately 15 minutes).
Non-furloughed employees will accrue pay for the time worked during shutdown operations but will not be paid until such time as Congress makes appropriated funds available to compensate them for their period of service.
We are uncertain of the duration of any furloughs that result from a gap in funding. The bulk of district employees will be placed on furlough. During the furlough, furloughed employees will be in a non-work, non-pay status. These employees will not be permitted to serve as unpaid volunteers in their workplace and must remain away from the workplace and refrain from working from remote locations (i.e., telework) unless and until recalled.
Recall:
During funding hiatus, furloughed employees should regularly check the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website (
OPM.gov) or local media as to whether an appropriation or CRA has been signed. Furloughed employees should report to work the next business day following enactment of a CRA or an appropriation related to USACE or request leave. The District HQ will send an alert using the emergency notification system (IRIS) recalling employees once notification of an appropriation or CRA is received. Employees need to contact their supervisor and let them know that they received the message. Supervisors will follow up with employees that they do not hear from to ensure that they received the recall message.
I truly appreciate their concern.
