{"data":{"id":"us/5-cfr-351.502","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"5 CFR 351.502","heading":"Order of retention—excepted service.","body":"(a) Competing employees shall be classified on a retention register in tenure groups on the basis of their tenure of employment, veteran preference, length of service, and performance in descending order as set forth under § 351.501(a) for competing employees in the competitive service.\n(b) Groups are defined as follows:\n(1) Group I includes each permanent employee whose appointment carries no restriction or condition such as conditional, indefinite, specific time limit, or trial period.\n(2) Group II includes each employee:\n(i) Serving a trial period; or\n(ii) Whose tenure is equivalent to a career-conditional appointment in the competitive service in agencies having such excepted appointments.\n(3) Group III includes each employee:\n(i) Whose tenure is indefinite (i.e., without specific time limit), but not actually or potentially permanent;\n(ii) Whose appointment has a specific time limitation of more than 1 year; or\n(iii) Who is currently employed under a temporary appointment limited to 1 year or less, but who has completed 1 year of current continuous service under a temporary appointment with no break in service of 1 workday or more.","path":["Title 5—Administrative Personnel","CHAPTER I—OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT","SUBCHAPTER B—CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS","PART 351—REDUCTION IN FORCE","Subpart E—Retention Standing"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-5.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:23:53Z","sha256":"475fcb9c58f0c7cbac858960ff581cbb133c480ad274b046cbcc43966613675f","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/5-cfr-351.501","next":"us/5-cfr-351.503"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}