Veteran's Employment Opportunities Act and Operation Joint Guard Fact Sheet from USAJOBS.COM

Information from the "Veterans Preference" fact sheet on the OPM site.

QUESTION:
Veterans Employment Opportunities Act, and Operation Joint Guard 5 pt preference. I qualify for both, and I am just curious how it would affect my application. Is there a grading scale for each application? Is there a site that lists what pts are awarded for what?

ANSWER:
Operation Joint Guard is part of the general 5-point veterans preference coverage (in other words, that operation is a campaign covered by veterans preference). This Veteran would gets 5 points added to his or her passing score., and is listed ahead of people with equal scores who do not have veterans preference. If an agency is using "category ranking" instead of numerical scores, then he or she goes to the top of whatever category he or she is placed in. Veterans must be offered a job before equal or lesser qualified non-veterans are, unless the agency has a valid objection to a veteran.

Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998, as amended
When an agency accepts applications from outside its own workforce, the Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) allows preference eligibles or veterans to compete for these vacancies under merit promotion procedures. Veterans who are selected are given career or career conditional appointments. Veterans are those who have been separated under honorable conditions from the armed forces with 3 or more years of continuous active service.

Purpose of the Law
Improved Access: The intent of the law is to open up opportunities to veterans that might otherwise be closed to them because agencies were increasingly limiting announcements just to "status" candidates - i.e., those who were already civil service employees. This law requires an agency to allow eligible veterans to apply when the agency will accept applications from individuals outside its own workforce. ("Agency," in this context, means the parent agency - i.e., Department of Defense, not Department of the Army.) Veterans' preference, however, does not apply to selections made under merit promotion procedures.

Improved Redress: The VEOA also allows a preference eligible who believes an agency has violated any of his or her rights under the veterans' preference laws or regulations, to file a formal complaint with the Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS). If VETS is unable to resolve the complaint within 60 days, the veteran may appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The law also makes a willful violation of veterans' preference a prohibited personnel practice under law.

Who is Eligible - "Active Service"
To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, a veteran must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed 3 or more years of active service. ("Active Service" under this law means active duty in a uniformed service and includes full-time training duty, annual training duty, full-time National Guard duty, and attendance, while in the active service, at a school designated as a service school by law or by the Secretary concerned.) A veteran who is released under honorable conditions shortly before completing a 3-year tour is also eligible.

How to Apply
Agency announcements will say when veterans are eligible under this law may apply. The veterans will be rated and ranked with other merit promotion eligibles. Those who are among the best qualified may be selected by the appointing official, but veterans' preference is not a factor. If selected, the veteran will be given a career or career conditional appointment, as appropriate.