Effective March 19, 2015, the Postal Service™ is revising the Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM). Recently Public Law 112-96, the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012” made changes to the FERS retirement law. New career employees (as designated in the statute) hired on or after January 1, 2013, will be covered under FERS as Revised Annuity Employees (RAE). The Postal Service retirement coverage codes for FERS-RAE and FERS-RAE (LEO) employees have been designated as “C” and “D” respectively.
FERS-RAE applies to:
n Any employee who receives an appointment not excluded from FERS coverage on or after January 1, 2013, and would normally be placed in FERS.
n There are three exceptions to this general rule; however, the date December 31, 2012, is a key date for each of these exceptions.
An employee will be excluded from FERS-RAE coverage if any of these exceptions apply:
n The individual on December 31, 2012, was covered under FERS; or
n The individual on December 31, 2012, was performing civilian service which is creditable or potentially creditable service under FERS; or
n The individual on December 31, 2012, was not covered under FERS and was not performing civilian service, which is creditable or potentially creditable service under FERS, but as of December 31, 2012, had performed at least five years of creditable service under FERS, including service subject to the Civilian Service Retirement System (CSRS or CSRS-Offset).
ELM 581 is revised to add 581.5 and 581.6 to include employees covered under FERS-RAE and employees who are excluded from coverage under FERS-RAE.
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Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM)
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5 Employee Benefits
580 Federal Employees Retirement System
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581 General
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581.1 Scope
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581.5 Employees Covered
[Add new 581.5 to read as follows:]
FERS-Revised Annuity Employee (RAE) applies to:
a. Any employee who receives an appointment not excluded from FERS coverage on or after January 1, 2013, and would normally be placed in FERS.
b. There are three exceptions to this general rule; however, the date December 31, 2013, is a key date for each of these exceptions.
581.6 Exclusions
[Add new 581.6 to read as follows:]
An employee will be excluded from FERS-RAE coverage if any of these exceptions apply:
a. The individual on December 31, 2012, was covered under FERS; or
b. The individual on December 31, 2012, was performing civilian service which is creditable or potentially creditable service under FERS; or
c. The individual on December 31, 2012, was not covered under FERS and was not performing civilian service, which is creditable or potentially creditable service under FERS, but as of December 31, 2012, had performed at least five years of creditable civilian service under FERS, including service subject to the Civilian Service Retirement System (CSRS or CSRS-Offset).
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We will incorporate these revisions into the next online update of the ELM, which is available on the Postal Service PolicyNet website:
n Go to http://blue.usps.gov.
n In the left-hand column under “Essential Links”, click PolicyNet.
n Click Manuals.
The direct URL for the Postal Service PolicyNet website is http://blue.usps.gov/cpim.
— Compensation and Benefits,
Labor Relations, 3-19-15
