Recruitment, Relocation and Retention Incentives

An agency must terminate a retention incentive service agreement if–

• The closure or relocation is cancelled or no longer affects the employee’s position;
• The employee moves to another position not affected by the closure or relocation (including another position within the same agency);
• For relocation situations, the employee accepts the agency's offer to relocate with his or her office, facility, activity, or organization and, thus, the employee is no longer likely to leave for a different position in the Federal service; or
• The employee moves to a different position in the same office, facility, activity, or organization subject to closure or relocation that is not covered by the employee’s service agreement.  In this situation, the agency may authorize a new retention incentive for the employee, as appropriate.

If an agency terminates a service agreement in cases in which (1) the employee’s movement to another position is by management action and not at the employee’s request or (2) the closure or relocation is cancelled or no longer affects the employee’s position, the employee is entitled to retain any retention incentive payments attributable to completed service and is entitled to receive any portion of a retention incentive payment owed by the agency for completed service.

If an agency terminates a service agreement when the employee’s movement to another position is at the employee’s request, the employee is entitled to retain retention incentive payments previously paid by the agency that are attributable to the completed portion of the service period.  If the employee received retention incentive payments that are less than the amount that would be attributable to the completed portion of the service period, the agency is not obligated to pay the employee the amount attributable to completed service, unless the agency agreed to such payment under the terms of the retention incentive service agreement.

(See 5 CFR 575.315(g).)