The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

6 AFSA NEWS • MAY 2003 Personnel Issues BY JAMES YORKE, LABOR MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST Q: My college-age daughter is coming to post for summer vacation. By the time her unaccompanied air baggage gets here, it’ll be time to send it back again. Can she store it in theStates rather thanbring it to post? A: Yes, she can, as long as the cost of storage does not exceed the cost of shipping theUAB topost. Thiswas authorized by a 2002 amend- ment to the legislation on educational travel (Section 5924(4)(B) of Title 5 of the U.S. Code). The new rules are pub- lished in6FAM125.4, and in Section 280 of the stan- dardizedregulations. Your daughterwill have tomake her own arrangements for storage near her school, and then you can claim reimbursement at post. You will need toprovide receipts inorder to receive expenses up to the amount it would have cost the U.S. government to ship the UAB to post, had that option been elected. Since each trip on educational travel starts at post and finishes at post, your daughter will be able to take a UAB ship- ment back to school on every authorized trip frompost to school, even if she stored some belongings before returning to post on the previous educational travel autho- rization. However, shemay only ship 250 lbs. of UAB back to post on any one occa- sion. Additional belongings over that limit that she may have accumulated over the yearswhile at schoolmust be shippedback to post at your expense. Q: I’m a Diplomatic Security agent over- seas and I’ve been assigned to the San Francisco Field Office. My last domestic postwas in theNewYorkFieldOffice. Can I get helpwithbuying and sellinghouses? A: Yes. The detailed rules appear in the Federal Travel Reg- ulations, Section302.11 (on the Internet at http://www.policyworks.gov/ftr). Inbrief, your newdomestic assignment must be at least 50 miles from the old domestic assignment. If you are seeking reimbursement for selling costs, youmust have owned a home in theNewYork area, and you must have lived in it and com- muted towork fromit. Most importantly, youmust not sell thehome in theN.Y. area or buy thehome inSanFranciscountil you have been officially assigned to a different duty station in the U.S. You will have to sign a continued service agreement prior to authorization of this allowance. However, sale of a residence at the old duty station is not required for claiming expenses for purchase at the newduty sta- tion. Important note: This benefit is available to any U.S. government employee who is moving fromone domestic assignment to another that is more than 50 miles away. Q: What expenses will be reimbursed when I sell and buy a house? A: The lists of what can and can not be reimbursed are quite long. See FTR 302-11.200 for reim- bursable expenses, and FTR 302-11.202 for non-reimbursable expenses. Q: Is there a ceiling on how much I may be reimbursed? A: Yes, the maximum you can be reimbursed is 10 percent of the actual sales price of the old house, and 5 percent of the actual purchase price of the new one. Q: My supervisor has written me a poor EER this year, but we didnot have any for- mal counseling sessions. Can I grieve this EER on the grounds that I was not ade- quately counseled? A: The answer to this is “it depends.” The Foreign Service Grievance Board has ruled that an employeemust not only be advised of the areas of performance deemed inadequate, but must also be given a reasonable opportunity to improve and given ade- quate guidance on how to improve. In addition, the department recently held that the lack of mandatory counseling that had been document- ed on the Counseling Certification Form (DS-1974), was suffi- cient grounds to ex- punge an EER. Although this department decision sets a precedent, a simi- lar case has not yet come before the FSGB. Indeed, in another case, the board ruled that this advice and counsel need not necessarily be given in a formal coun- seling session. If the objectives of the counseling have been achieved, the deci- sion stated, the procedural error of fail- ing to conduct formal counseling sessions does not constitute a substantive error. If it is clear that the employee knew what his or her duties were and was made aware of performance weaknesses through oversight and close supervision, then the intent of the counseling is con- sidered to have been achieved. ▫ Q & A JOSH