The 2012 civilian employee leave year ends Jan. 12, 2013, and Air Force Personnel Center officials remind civilians that those who have more than the maximum carryover hours of annual leave on that date risk losing their leave.

The maximum carryover ceiling is 240 hours for stateside employees, 360 hours for overseas employees, and 720 hours for senior executive service, senior level positions, and scientific or professional positions.

With only two months to go in this leave year, supervisors should establish or confirm their employees' leave plans, said Cynthia Dale, AFPC workforce effectiveness branch.

"We want to make sure all employees have reasonable opportunity to use any annual leave they would otherwise have to forfeit at the end of the leave year," said Dale. "More importantly, if work related issues come up that prevent them from taking leave, we want to make sure that the scheduled, documented request exists so lost leave can be restored."

According to Dale, all use or lose leave must be scheduled and approved in writing before Dec. 1.

"Scheduling leave is so important that it is a prerequisite for restoration of annual leave," she said. "If you have approved scheduled leave and an exigency arises that requires cancellation of such leave and makes forfeiture unavoidable and there is not sufficient time in the leave year to reschedule, your supervisor can request restoration."

Employees with more than 240 hours of leave accumulated who don't plan to use it, can opt to donate any excess leave to any federal employee participating in the voluntary leave transfer program, Dale said.

"If you aren't going to be able to use it and want someone to benefit from it, there are many employees who could use some help," she said. "Your local civilian personnel section employee relations specialist can explain how the leave donation program works."

For more information about civilian benefits and other personnel issues, go to the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil.