President Biden has signed into law establishing June 19 as a new federal holiday in acknowledgement of Juneteenth National Independence Day.

Most federal employees will observe this new federal holiday tomorrow, Friday, June 18, because this calendar year, June 19 is on a Saturday.

Because of the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday, please submit your timesheets as early as today, but no later than Tuesday, June 22. Supervisors must approve T&As by close of business (5 p.m. Central Time) Tuesday.

What you need to do:

Employees will need to code the holiday based on their work schedule:

• Maxi-flex employees can only code 8 hours to a holiday.
• 5/4/9 employees will code 8 or 9 holiday hours based on what they are scheduled to work on the holiday or in lieu of holiday.
• 4/10 employees will code 10 hours for the day.

Below is some guidance on how employees will code their timesheet for this new holiday.

• If Saturday is an employee’s normal workday, then employee’s will observe the holiday on Saturday, June 19. Employees will code their time using Descriptor Code 21 (paid holiday) and Transaction Code (TC) 66.
• If an employee is regularly scheduled off on Saturday and able to observe the holiday on Friday, June 18, then employees will code their time using Descriptor Code 21 (DC-21) and Transaction Code 66 (TC-66).

• If an employee had scheduled leave during the holiday, then employees will code their time as a holiday instead of leave, using DC-21 and TC-66.

• If Friday and Saturday are an employee’s scheduled day off, including maxi-flex employees who completed their base hours, then employee’s will observe the holiday today, Thursday, June 17. Employees will code their time using DC-21 and TC-66 for their regular work schedule hours (8,9,10).  Employees will also code Holiday worked using Transaction Code 31 (TC-31) for the same number of base hours as TC-66.
• If maxi-flex employees were scheduled to work less than 8 hours on Friday or Saturday, these employees will code 8 hours using DC-21 and TC-66 for the holiday. Any hours worked, employees will also code Holiday worked using TC-31.
• If an employee is required to work during the holiday, they will need to code their regularly scheduled work hours using DC-21 and TC-66.  They will also need to code the same hours they worked during the hours they coded using DC-21 and TC-66, using TC-31 (8,9,10) as well. Any hours worked outside of the DC-21 and TC-66 will need to be coded using credit hours, comp hours, and overtime.
• Employees are limited to 8 hours of holiday paid leave (or number of hours scheduled under a compressed work schedule).  Employees under flexible work schedules who intended to flex and work more than 8 hours on their scheduled holiday, normally must make up the additional hours throughout the week by working more hours or taking leave.  However, due to extenuating circumstances of the Act being signed into law during the end of the pay period, supervisors may grant up to 2 hours of administrative leave (TC-66) to make up the employee’s 80-hour basic biweekly work requirement for employees under a flexible work schedule that fall under this circumstance

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 click HR Help
• For detailed instructions, visit the HR Help How-to Add a Case Guide.