Human Resources Management wanted to provide an update about employees in wildland firefighting positions who received erroneous annual salary documentation, Standard Form 50 (SF-50), just over two weeks ago.

As communicated by Tony Dixon, deputy chief for Business Operations, in Inside the Forest Service, Human Resources Management and the National Finance Center (the agency’s payroll service provider) have worked together to create a solution to issue new SF-50s that display the correct total annual salary amounts. Wildland firefighters will receive an email message when a corrected SF-50 has been uploaded to their electronic Official Personnel Folder; some employees may receive their notice as early as next week. The corrected SF-50 will reflect the total annual amount of wildland firefighter supplemental payments, up to a maximum of $20,000. Wildland firefighters who receive supplemental payments equal to 50% of their base pay will not receive a corrected SF-50 because their SF-50 is correct.  

Please know that this error was not made deliberately, and it is realized it created confusion for those who received erroneous SF-50s. 

Creating corrected SF-50s will take multiple weeks to complete and I appreciate your patience during this time. If anyone has questions about their pay, please call the Human Resources Management Contact Center at 1-877-372-7248, press 2. 

For more details on the permanent pay fix for wildland firefighters, please continue to refer to information provided by Deputy Chief Jaelith Hall-Rivera, State, Private, and Tribal Forestry, in Inside the Forest Service. 

Help is available

Open an HR Help case:

• Call: 1-877-372-7248, Press 2.
• Email: hrm_contact_center@usda.gov.
• Self-Service: ConnectHR, then select HR Help. For detailed instructions, visit the HR Help How-to Add a Case Guide.