§4156 Preservation of Status and Benefits

Summary

People who are moved into a new job under this law must be put into the class, grade, and pay step that most closely matches what they had right before the move. The move cannot make them lose class, grade, or basic pay. If someone is moved into the competitive service under section 4154, the job they hold (or any later job they are placed into without asking) will be treated as the matching grade for as long as they keep that job. People will also get an appointment type that most closely matches their prior tenure, but this does not lengthen any limited appointment or previous time-in-class. People already in the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System get an extra 120 days of coverage after they would otherwise stop. During those 120 days they can choose in writing to stay in the Foreign Service system instead of moving to the Civil Service system if they work for an agency allowed to use the Foreign Service personnel system. If they do not choose, they move to the Civil Service system and their contributions are transferred. A Foreign Service Reserve officer with limited tenure and reemployment rights has the same 120-day choice and transfer. Anyone serving on February 15, 1981, in the Foreign Service or in a position continued by this chapter can keep serving without being reappointed. A Foreign Service career appointee who was serving on October 17, 1980, and who was not covered by section 633(a)(2) before February 15, 1981, cannot be retired under section 4008 until 10 years after February 15, 1981, or until they first become eligible for an immediate annuity under subchapter VIII, whichever happens first.