Executive Order 11582—Observance of Holidays by Government Agencies

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

SECTION 1. Except as provided in section 7, this order shall apply to all executive departments, independent agencies, and Government corporations, including their field services.

SEC. 2. As used in this order:

(a) Holiday means the first day of January, the third Monday of February, the last Monday of May, the fourth day of July, the first Monday of September, the second Monday of October, the fourth Monday of October, the fourth Thursday of November, the twenty-fifth day of December, or any other calendar day designated as a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order.

(b) Workday means those hours which comprise in sequence the employee's regular daily tour of duty within any 24-hour period, whether falling entirely within one calendar day or not.

SEC. 3. (a) Any employee whose basic workweek does not include Sunday and who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday falling within his basic workweek shall be excused from work on the next workday of his basic workweek whenever a holiday falls on Sunday.

(b) Any employee whose basic workweek includes Sunday and who would ordinarily be excused from work on a holiday falling within his basic workweek shall be excused from work on the next workday of his basic workweek whenever a holiday falls on a day that has been administratively scheduled as his regular weekly non-workday in lieu of Sunday.

SEC. 4. The holiday for a full-time employee for whom the head of a department has established the first 40 hours of duty performed within a period of not more than six days of the administrative workweek as his basic workweek because of the impracticability of prescribing a regular schedule of definite hours of duty for each workday, shall be determined as follows:

(a) If a holiday occurs on Sunday, the head of the department shall designate in advance either Sunday or Monday as the employee's holiday and the employee's basic 40-hour tour of duty shall be deemed to include eight hours on the day designated as the employee's holiday.

(b) If a holiday occurs on Saturday, the head of the department shall designate in advance either the Saturday or the preceding Friday as the employee's holiday and the employee's basic 40-hour tour of duty shall be deemed to include eight hours on the day designated as the employee's holiday.

(c) If a holiday occurs on any other day of the week, that day shall be the employee's holiday, and the employee's basic 40-hour tour of duty shall be deemed to include eight hours on that day.

(d) When a holiday is less than a full day, proportionate credit will be given under paragraph (a), (b), or (c) of this section.

SEC. 5. Any employee whose workday covers portions of two calendar days and who would, except for this section, ordinarily be excused from work scheduled for the hours of any calendar day on which a holiday falls, shall instead be excused from work on his entire workday which commences on any such calendar day.

SEC. 6. In administering the provisions of law relating to pay and leave of absence, the workdays referred to in sections 3, 4, and 5 shall be treated as holidays in lieu of the corresponding calendar holidays.

SEC. 7. The provisions of this order shall apply to officers and employees of the Post Office Department and the United States Postal Service (except that sections 3, 4, 5, and 6 shall not apply to the Postal Field Service) until changed by the Postal Service in accordance with the Postal Reorganization Act.

SEC. 8. Executive Order No. 10358 of June 9, 1952, entitled Observance of Holidays by Government Agencies, and amendatory Executive Orders No. 11226 of May 27, 1965, and No. 11272 of February 23, 1966, are revoked.

SEC. 9. This order is effective as of January 1, 1971.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

February 11, 1971