Pay saving

§ 5337. Pay saving (a) Subject to the limitation in subsection (b) of this section, an employee— (1) who is reduced in grade from a grade of the General Schedule; (2) who holds a career or career-conditional appointment in the competitive service, or an appointment of equivalent tenure in the excepted service or in the government of the District of Columbia; (3) whose reduction in grade is not (A) caused by a demotion for personal cause, (B) at his request, (C) effected in a reduction in force due to lack of funds or curtailment of work, or (D) with respect to a temporary promotion occurring after September 20, 1961, a condition of the temporary promotion to a higher grade; (4) who, for 2 continuous years immediately before the reduction in grade, served (A) in the same agency and (B) in a grade or grades higher than the grade to which demoted; and (5) whose work performance during the 2-year period is satisfactory or better; is entitled to basic pay at the rate to which he was entitled immediately before the reduction in grade (including each increase in rate of basic pay provided by statute) for a period of 2 years from the effective date of the reduction in grade, so long as he— (A) continues in the same agency without a break in service of one workday or more; (B) is not entitled to a higher rate of basic pay by operation of this subchapter or chapter 51 of this title; and (C) is not demoted or reassigned (i) for personal cause, (ii) at his request, or (iii) in a reduction in force due to lack of funds or curtailment of work. (b) The rate of basic pay to which an employee is entitled under subsection (a) of this section with respect to each reduction in grade to which this section applies may not exceed the sum of— (1) the minimum rate of the grade to which he is reduced under each reduction in grade to which this section applies (including each increase in rate of basic pay provided by statute); and (2) the difference between his rate immediately before the first reduction in grade to which this section applies (including each increase in rate of basic pay provided by statute) and the minimum rate of that grade which is three grades lower than the grade from which he was reduced under the first of the reductions in grade (including each increase in the rate of basic pay provided by statute).