16 U.S.C. § 460lll–47 — Personnel

(a) In general. (1) Hiring: Despite the usual limit in section 3503 of title 5, and subject to the rule below, the Secretary may hire, appoint, and fire officers and employees to run the Recreation Area, and pay them at levels similar to other National Forest System units. (2) Interim retention of eligible employees: (A) For at least 5 months after the Forest Service takes over, every eligible TVA employee stays employed by TVA. They count as "detailed" to the Secretary and take direction from the Secretary. The Secretary must repay TVA for their pay and other compensation. (B) The Secretary must give eligible employees written notice at least 60 days before ending their detail. (C) None of this stops a firing for cause during that period. (b) Applications for transfer and appointment: An eligible employee can apply to work for the Secretary using the normal federal rules for transferring employees between agencies (the same rules used for employees moving in from outside the Department of Agriculture). (c) Hiring by Secretary. (1) In general: Subject to (b), the Secretary must follow all Department of Agriculture laws and policies when filling jobs in the Recreation Area. (2) Notification and hiring: But the Secretary must tell eligible employees about job openings before telling anyone else, and consider their applications first. Only after that can the Secretary notify other people about any openings still unfilled. (3) Noncompetitive appointments: The Secretary can hire eligible employees without a competition, regardless of other career-transition rules. (4) Period of service: An eligible employee's time working for TVA counts as time working for the Secretary — for things like probation, career tenure, time-in-grade, and leave — unless the employee is separately paid for that time. (d) Transfer to positions in other units of Tennessee Valley Authority: TVA must tell eligible employees about job openings in other parts of TVA before telling anyone else, and consider their applications first. Only afterward can it tell other people about any openings still unfilled. (e) Employee benefit transition. (1) Memorandum of understanding: (A) The Secretary, the Office of Personnel Management, TVA, and the TVA Retirement System must sign an agreement covering how eligible employees' TVA Retirement System benefits will transition. (B) In writing that agreement, they must meet with employees and their representatives and fully consider their views. (2) Employees who transfer to another TVA unit keep all their retirement, health, leave, and other benefits without interruption or reduction. (3) Employees hired by the Secretary: (A) Level of benefits: The Secretary must give them retirement and health benefits equal to what they would have gotten by staying at TVA. (B) Transfer of retirement benefits: (i) They join the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) Offset Plan, and within six months can choose to switch to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) instead. At any time, they can choose to get credit in CSRS Offset or FERS for their TVA service, by making any required deposit; that deposit gets favorable tax treatment as a transfer to a qualified plan. (ii) Funding shortfall: (I) For employees who aren't in the Civil Service Retirement System, TVA must cover any funding gap created by moving their retirement benefits. (II) The Secretary must tell the TVA Board what that transfer costs. (III) TVA must pay the Secretary back in full for those costs. (IV) An employee eligible for Civil Service Retirement must not have any gap in retirement benefits. (C) No interruption: hired employees keep continuous health, leave, and other benefits, and can carry over their unused TVA leave. (D) Period of service: despite a different rule in section 8411(b)(3) of title 5, their TVA service counts as Department of Agriculture service for all federal-employment purposes, unless they're separately compensated for it under the memorandum of understanding. (4) Employees discharged not for cause: (A) Level of benefits: the parties to the memorandum of understanding can waive requirements, make payments, or take other steps to give a laid-off employee (who doesn't take a Secretary job offer) retirement and health benefits as good as those given in TVA's past layoffs. (B) Minimum benefits: at minimum, such an employee gets: (i) their choice of — (I) $1,000 per year of service, but never less than $15,000 or more than $25,000; (II) a lump sum equal to their last 26 weeks of pay; or (III) 5 extra years added to both their age and years of service; plus (ii) 15 months of health benefits at the pre-transfer level, for themselves and dependents; (iii) 1 week of TVA Retirement System pay per year of service; (iv) a lump-sum payout of all unused annual leave; (v) unemployment compensation under state law; (vi) pension benefits from the TVA Retirement System; and (vii) retraining help from TVA. (C) Shortfall: if the TVA Retirement System's board decides these benefits would hurt the overall retirement system, TVA must cover any funding shortfall.