Initial Implementing Guidance for Schedule P/C Final Rule

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released initial guidance on implementing the final rule, "Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service." The rule contemplates that the President will publish an Executive Order that will move employees into a new category of federal employment: Schedule Policy/Career (P/C). The government describes Schedule P/C as creating a category of at-will employees who occupy "confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy advocating" positions. The guidance document explains OPM's view of Schedule Policy/Career and includes a FAQ, a template policy that agencies can use to create their own internal policies against some personnel practices, and templates for notifying employees that their position has been moved into Schedule P/C. Most notably, the template "notice" form asks affected employees to sign a form stating that their position is now at-will and that "I knowingly and voluntarily accept the position as it has been presented to me."