I invite you and your technical staffs to attend a forum on September 27, 2006, from 9 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to discuss the new regulations recently issued as part of the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM's) effort to provide agencies with guidance to ensure they are able to fulfill their critical missions while at the same time protect employees if a pandemic health crisis occurs. The forum will be held in the Campbell Auditorium at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), 1900 E Street, NW., Washington, DC.

On August 17, 2006, OPM issued-

• Interim regulations to give agencies the authority to provide evacuation payments to employees during a pandemic health crisis and determining an employee's official worksite when he or she teleworks from an alternative worksite during an emergency situation, such as a pandemic health crisis, and
  
• Final regulations to remove the requirement for an employee to maintain a minimum sick leave balance in order to use the maximum amount of sick leave available for family care and bereavement

OPM's regulations are available at http://www.opm.gov/fedregis/.

I encourage you to invite your human resources specialists to join us at the forum and take full advantage of this opportunity. For further information, you may contact David Barash at (202) 606-2858.