OPM Issues Evacuation Pay Rule

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is trying to think about the unthinkable.

The OPM, the top human resources management agency for the federal government, has published an interim rule dealing with Locality-Based Comparability Payments and Evacuation Payments.

The temporary regulation is supposed to clarify the rules for determining an employee’s official worksite when the employee “teleworks” from an alternative worksite during an emergency situation, such as a pandemic health crisis, the OPM says.

The interim regulations also permit an agency to provide evacuations to an employee who is ordered to evacuate from the usual worksite and directed to work in a home or in some other location.