Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998

The Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 allows preference eligibles or veterans who have been separated under honorable conditions from the armed forces with 3 or more years of continuous active service to compete for vacancies under merit promotion procedures when an agency accepts applications from outside its own workforce.

What the new law does:

Requires all merit promotion announcements open to applicants outside the hiring agencies' workforce to indicate that veterans eligible under this new law can apply. However, the new law does not require the application of veterans' preference to selections made under merit promotion;

Permits these eligible veterans to be hired under an excepted service appointing authority. Eligible veterans are able to compete for competitive service jobs open to all sources ;

Permits a preference eligible to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor if he or she believes that an agency has violated his or her veterans' preference entitlements;

Makes violation of veterans' preference entitlements a prohibited personnel practice;

Extends veterans' preference requirements to certain activities in the Government Accounting Office, Executive Office of the President, Judicial and Legislative branches of Government;

Requires the Federal Aviation Administration to apply veterans' preference during RIF procedures.

Benefits of the hiring authority:

Allows qualified veterans no longer eligible under the VRA authority to be appointed to Federal jobs;

Provides benefits similar to other excepted authorities (incl. permanent employment, career ladder promotions, health and life insurance benefits, and the ability to compete for Federal jobs when an agency is seeking candidates outside its own workforce);

Protections in RIF and adverse actions

No time-in-grade requirements for promotions

No grade limits on the appointment

Note: "active service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time national Guard, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.

AS OF: 12-08-98