Opinion ID: 433019
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Retention of Civil Service Benefits During the Transfer Period

Text: 19 No question exists that the former DOL employees were to retain their competitive service benefits until such time as the District of Columbia implemented its own personnel system. The summary of the Home Rule Act prepared by the Committee on the District of Columbia explains: 20 [T]he Act clarifies and guarantees that an employee will not lose his civil service rights, such as leave, salary, retirement, veteran's preference, promotion status, etc., during the transfer period, .... 29 21 Nothing in the legislative history, however, states that these rights were to continue after the transition period. To read the absence of an express time limit on these rights as a continuing grant of federal benefits is to read too much into statutory silence. 22 The legislative history of section 713(d) reinforces the conclusion that these were merely interim rights. In explaining what rights, benefits, and privileges transferred employees would enjoy, Congressman Brock Adams, one of the Home Rule Act's architects, stated that the grant of continued federal rights 23 cannot be changed ... unless we put together and pass a new complete personnel system which would of course supersede this.... That gets us up through keeping the government intact until the new government comes in. 30 24 This new personnel system is, of course, now in effect. With its enactment, section 713(d) ceased to apply to the transferred employees. 31 25 Parts of the statute do appear somewhat ambiguous on their face. When the statute is read in its entirety together with relevant portions of the legislative history, however, the congressional intent is clear. One of the major objectives in the Home Rule Act was to reorganize a fragmented local government in an efficient manner. It sought to create a unitary, more autonomous system, not to continue various parallel systems. Congress did intend to provide interim protection by assuring that the existing federal system of benefits would continue until the District government had developed an adequate alternative. Once the District system was in place, these protections became unnecessary. If maintained, they would have frustrated the congressional purpose of creating a single, autonomous personnel system. With the establishment of the new system, the former federal DOL employees became District employees subject to the new District personnel scheme. They did not retain their federal status nor continue to be entitled to civil service rights. Appellants are now completely integrated into the District of Columbia personnel system. 32