General

Normally, night pay for General Schedule employees is payable for any regularly scheduled hours of work between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. (see 5 U.S.C. 5545(a) and 5 CFR 550.121-550.122). However, special rules apply to night pay for employees on a flexible work schedule. For such an employee, agencies must pay night pay for those hours that must be worked between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. in order to allow the employee to complete a daily tour of duty of at least 8 hours. Agencies must also pay night pay for any non-overtime work performed between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. during designated core hours. (See 5 U.S.C. 6123(c).) In other words, if an employee has 8 or more hours available for work during daytime hours (i.e., between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.) within agency-established limits on when basic work requirement hours may be performed, they are not entitled to night pay because they are voluntarily electing to work during hours for which night pay is normally required (i.e., between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.). No night pay is payable for basic work requirement (non-overtime) hours if there are 8 hours available to be worked in the flexible time bands outside of the nighttime hours, and no core hours are required during night hours. Night pay is payable for regularly scheduled overtime work during night hours.