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Title 20

Displaying title 20, up to date as of 10/01/2026. Title 20 was last amended 9/30/2026.
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Eligibility for COP

§ 10.205 What conditions must be met to receive COP?

(a) To be eligible for COP, a person must:

(1) Have a “traumatic injury” as defined at § 10.5(ee) which is job-related and the cause of the disability, and/or the cause of lost time due to the need for medical examination and treatment;

(2) File Form CA-1 within 30 days of the date of the injury (but if that form is not available, using another form would not alone preclude receipt); and

(3) Begin losing time from work due to the traumatic injury within 45 days of the injury.

(b) OWCP may find that the employee is not entitled to COP for other reasons consistent with the statute (see § 10.220).

§ 10.206 May an employee who uses leave after an injury later decide to use COP instead?

On Form CA-1, an employee may elect to use accumulated sick or annual leave, or leave advanced by the agency, instead of electing COP. The employee can change the election between leave and COP for prospective periods at any point while eligibility for COP remains. The employee may also change the election for past periods and request COP in lieu of leave already taken for the same period. In either situation, the following provisions apply:

(a) The request must be made to the employer within one year of the date the leave was used or the date of the written approval of the claim by OWCP (if written approval is issued), whichever is later.

(b) Where the employee is otherwise eligible, the agency shall restore leave taken in lieu of any of the 45 COP days. Where any of the 45 COP days remain unused, the agency shall continue pay prospectively.

(c) The use of leave may not be used to delay or extend the 45-day COP period or to otherwise affect the time limitation as provided by 5 U.S.C. 8117. Therefore, any leave used during the period of eligibility counts towards the 45-day maximum entitlement to COP.

§ 10.207 May an employee who returns to work, then stops work again due to the effects of the injury, receive COP?

If the employee recovers from disability and returns to work, then becomes disabled again and stops work, the employer shall pay any of the 45 days of entitlement to COP not used during the initial period of disability where:

(a) The employee completes Form CA-2a and elects to receive regular pay;

(b) OWCP did not deny the original claim for disability;

(c) The disability recurs and the employee stops work within 45 days of the time the employee first returned to work following the initial period of disability; and

(d) Pay has not been continued for the entire 45 days.