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Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-102

§8151 Civil Service Retention Rights

Title 5 › PART III — EMPLOYEES › Subpart G — Insurance and Annuities › CHAPTER 81 — COMPENSATION FOR WORK INJURIES › SUBCHAPTER I — GENERALLY › § 8151

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

If a federal worker who was getting compensation for a work injury returns to federal employment, all the time they were paid counts toward pay-step increases, retention, and other benefits based on length of service. Under rules from the Office of Personnel Management, the last agency that employed the worker must immediately give them their old job or an equivalent job and the same rights (like tenure, promotion, and protection in layoffs) if the disability ends within one year from when payments began, or if it recurs after they had returned to full-time work. If the disability lasts more than one year, that agency must try hard and give priority to placing the person back in their old or an equivalent job in that agency or another one.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §8151

Government Organization and Employees, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In the event the individual resumes employment with the Federal Government, the entire time during which the employee was receiving compensation under this chapter shall be credited to the employee for the purposes of within-grade step increases, retention purposes, and other rights and benefits based upon length of service.
(b)Under regulations issued by the Office of Personnel Management—
(1)the department or agency which was the last employer shall immediately and unconditionally accord the employee, if the injury or disability has been overcome within one year after the date of commencement of compensation or from the time compensable disability recurs if the recurrence begins after the injured employee resumes regular full-time employment with the United States, the right to resume his former or an equivalent position, as well as all other attendant rights which the employee would have had, or acquired, in his former position had he not been injured or disabled, including the rights to tenure, promotion, and safeguards in reductions-in-force procedures, and
(2)the department or agency which was the last employer shall, if the injury or disability is overcome within a period of more than one year after the date of commencement of compensation, make all reasonable efforts to place, and accord priority to placing, the employee in his former or equivalent position within such department or agency, or within any other department or agency.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1978—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 95–454 substituted “Office of Personnel Management” for “Civil Service Commission”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1978 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 95–454 effective 90 days after Oct. 13, 1978, see section 907 of Pub. L. 95–454, set out as a note under section 1101 of this title.

Effective Date

Section applicable to cases where injury or death occurred prior to Sept. 7, 1974, but only to a period beginning on or after Sept. 7, 1974, see section 28(a) of Pub. L. 93–416, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1974 Amendment note under section 8101 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 8151

Title 5, Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102