Opinion ID: 209435
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Butterbaugh

Text: Under 5 U.S.C. § 6323(a)(1), certain employees of the federal government are granted 15 days per fiscal year of military leave. [] In Butterbaugh, this court concluded that the word days in section 6323 should be construed to mean workdays rather than calendar days. 336 F.3d at 1336-42. Our decision was premised on the fact that the Office of Personnel Management had determined that the term days meant workdays in 5 U.S.C. § 6326, a closely related federal leave statute. Id. at 1338-39 (citing 5 C.F.R. § 630.804). Administrative agencies are expected to construe the same term in closely related statutes consistently, and since the term days had been construed to mean workdays in section 6326, we concluded that it should be construed to mean workdays in section 6323 as well. Id. Because we determined that section 6323 grants employees fifteen workdays, rather than fifteen calendar days, of military leave, we held that the Department of Justice was prohibited from charging non-workdays against its employees' military leave. Id. at 1337-42. Butterbaugh, however, affords Welshans no remedy. The only issue addressed there was the correct interpretation of 5 U.S.C. § 6323(a)(1). Butterbaugh, 336 F.3d at 1336. By statute, the Postal Service is specifically excluded from the application of section 6323. See 5 U.S.C. § 2105(e) (Except as otherwise provided by law, an employee of the United States Postal Service ... is deemed not an employee for purposes of this title.); Nigg v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 321 F.3d 1381, 1384 (Fed.Cir.2003) (The provisions of Title 5 do not apply to the Postal Service unless Congress has specifically so provided.); Bacashihua v. Merit Sys. Prot. Bd., 811 F.2d 1498, 1501 (Fed.Cir.1987) ([T]he Postal Service [is] an independent establishment of the executive branch with very limited application of federal employee law.). Because section 6323 is inapplicable to Postal Service employees, nothing in Butterbaugh prohibits the Postal Service from charging non-workdays against its employees' military leave.