Transfer of employees.

(a) Before a reduction in force is made in connection with the transfer of any or all of the functions of one agency to another agency, each competing employee in a position identified with the transferring function or functions must be transferred to the agency gaining the function without any change in the tenure of his or her employment. (b) An employee whose position is transferred under this subpart and who is identified with a function or functions that will be terminated in the gaining agency within 60 days is not a competing employee for other positions in the agency gaining the function or functions and does not have a right to any continuing positions in the agency gaining the function or functions. (c) Regardless of an employee's personal preference, a competing employee only has the right to transfer with his or her function when the alternative in the agency losing the function is separation or demotion. (d) Except as permitted in paragraph (e) of this section, the losing agency must use the adverse action procedures found in 5 CFR part 752, if applicable, or other procedures required by law, regulation, or the terms of the employee's appointment, if it chooses to separate a competing employee who declines to transfer with his or her function. (e) The losing agency may, at its discretion, include competing employees who decline to transfer with their function in a concurrent reduction in force. (f) An agency may not separate a competing employee who declines to transfer with the function any sooner than it transfers competing employees who chose to transfer with the function to the gaining agency. (g) Agencies may ask employees whose positions are identified with the transferring function pursuant to § 351.303, via a canvass letter, whether each employee prefers to transfer with the function when the function transfers to a different agency. The canvass letter must give each employee information regarding the consequences of accepting the offer to transfer, and the consequences of declining the offer to transfer. The agency may require an employee to respond to the canvass letter within a set period of time but must give the employee at least 30 calendar days to consider the offer. The agency may treat a failure to respond to the canvass letter as a declination of the offer to transfer with the function, unless the employee establishes that the failure to respond within the specified timeframe was due to circumstances beyond the employee's control such as the employee not receiving the letter or employee or family member illness. [91 FR 49219, Aug. 3, 2026]