AGO 98015.

• Court: Nebraska

Nebraska Attorney General Opinions 1998. AGO 98015. DATE: February 23, 1998SUBJECT: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 55-160 (1993); Use of Vacation Leave During Emergency Military Duty by State Employees Who are also Members of the Nebraska National GuardREQUESTED BY: Karen Kilgarin, Director, Nebraska Department of Administrative ServicesWRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General Dale A. Comer, Assistant Attorney General In October, 1997, the State of Nebraska was hit by a severe winter snowstorm which left heavy accumulations of snow and damaged trees and power lines in several parts of the state. In the aftermath of that storm, portions of the cities of Lincoln and Omaha were left without electrical power for several days. To aid in disaster relief and the provision of necessary services, the Governor declared a state of emergency and called various units of the Nebraska National Guard (the "Guard") to active duty. The Guard units on active duty in connection with storm relief efforts included state employees who left their normal jobs with state agencies to serve in the Guard during the emergency. Under the pertinent portions of the Nebraska Statutes, those state employees on active duty with the Guard during the emergency were eligible for an emergency military leave of absence. With such a leave of absence, state employees are entitled to be paid their military salaries plus sufficient additional sums from their state agency salaries so that they suffer no loss from their total state pay during the period of active duty. In essence, the state agencies involved pay the Guard members the difference between their military pay and their state agency pay for the days on emergency military leave. A number of the Guard employees involved in the October, 1997, snow emergency have now apparently inquired as to whether they may take vacation or earned compensatory time from their state agency for the days when they were on military active duty after the storm instead of taking emergency military leave. In that fashion, those individuals could potentially earn both their military salary and their full state agency salary. The individuals in question were initially told that they could not take vacation time for the days on active military duty. Nevertheless, to assist in resolving the issue, you have posed the following question to us: Can an...