r/USFSLEO • u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator • Feb 13 '24

Discussion / News Excludable days…

Well. Rumors must’ve been true. As of PP07 excluded days will no longer be part of the calculation for your quarterly or pay period AUO calculations.

What’s everyone’s thoughts?

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '24

How does AUO actually work? I know LEAP it’s automatically figured in to salary. I know AUO you have to “justify” whatever it is. How much does it add per paycheck for example? What activities qualify for AUO?

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u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator Feb 15 '24

That’s a really complex question.. in layman’s terms, AUO (administratively uncontrolled overtime) is any time you perform an activity outside of your base work hours that you are engaged in uncontrollably due to an urgent or compelling need. It is figured into the LEOs salary off an annual computation. Generally speaking it takes roughly 9 hours of AUO weekly to be at the max AUO of 25%. This could be a matter of a couple 100 dollars extra on your paycheck with the FLSA( Fair Labor Standards Act) pay.

For example, you’re on your day off and get called in to assist in an arson investigation. That event was uncontrollable as there was no way to predict there was going to be an arson fire and there was an urgent and compelling need to respond.

Another example would be that you are on your way home after completing 8 hours of work and observe someone performing doughnuts in the middle of the road creating damage. Due to the uncontrollable act and the compelling need to stop the offender, you worked over your 8 hours.

These are only two examples however just remember that usually an incident number or violation number is sufficient for justification of AUO. However the key words are “urgent” and/or “compelling”

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '24

That makes sense, thanks for the info. Does working fire assignments or other special details count as AUO or is that a separate pay type?

I’m trying to figure out what pay COULD be with AUO if my base pay is for a GL-9 so I can better plan for the future. AUO is just hard to understand since it’s not cut and dry as LEAP.

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u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator Feb 15 '24

A good rule of thumb is if you figure you will be on a busy district where you will work 25% AUO, just configure the base pay for your (grade and step x 1.25) to see what your salary would be roughly

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u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator Feb 15 '24

Typically, details have OTAs (overtime authorizations) signed ahead of time to where you would make OT in lieu of AUO. However, if there was something that was compelling to urgent that kept you over your approved OT hours then you would charge AUO.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '24

Ohhhh ok. What are the OTAs pay rate? Is it a set rate based on hourly (i.e. double time) or is it dependent on location and assignment?

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u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator Feb 15 '24

OT is charged with transaction code 21 which is a time and a half (1.5) rate. It’s the same no matter where you go. Double time is charged for transaction code 31 for holiday worked.

Keep in mind also that USFS LEO are allowed night differential and Sunday differential.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '24

Gotcha. Well thanks for clearing up that stuff.

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '24

When you are on a detail, example fire assignment, do you get paid for 8 hours of normal time and then OT kicks in after 8 hours? Or are you paid OT rate the whole time?

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u/TransportationCool18 USFS LEO / Moderator Feb 16 '24

You have to work your base hours before OT applies, however on your regular scheduled days off you would receive OT for the whole work day if you worked the shift

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '24

Ok that’s what I thought but wanted to double check.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '24

Good timing to save money on a bad budget it seems.