[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2006]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR2.2]

[Page 8-9]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
                CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
 
PART 2_APPOINTMENT THROUGH THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM (RULE II)--Table of 
Contents
 
Sec. 2.2  Appointments.

    (a) OPM shall establish and administer a career-conditional 
appointment system for positions subject to competitive examinations 
which will permit adjustment of the career service to necessary 
fluctuations in Federal employment, and provide an equitable and orderly 
system for stabilizing the Federal work force. A competitive status 
shall be acquired by a career-conditional appointee upon satisfactory 
completion of a probationary period, but the appointee shall have 
career-conditional tenure for a period of service to be prescribed by 
regulation of OPM. When an employee has completed the required period of 
service his appointment shall be converted to a career appointment 
without time limitation: Provided, That his career-conditional 
appointment shall not be converted to a career appointment if the 
limitation on the number of permanent employees in the Federal civil 
service established under paragraph (b) of this section would be 
exceeded thereby. Persons selected from competitive civil service 
registers for other than temporary appointment shall be given career-
conditional appointments: Provided, That career appointments shall be 
given to the following classes of eligibles:
    (1) Persons whose appointments are required by statute to be made on 
a permanent basis;
    (2) Employees serving under career appointments at the time of 
selection from such registers;
    (3) Former employees who have eligibility for career appointments 
upon reinstatement; and
    (4) To the extent permitted by law, persons appointed to positions 
in the field service of the U.S. Postal Service for which salary rates 
are fixed by the

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act of July 6, 1945, 59 Stat. 435, as heretofore or hereafter amended 
and supplemented.
    (b) Under the career-conditional appointment system there shall be a 
limit on the number of permanent employees in the Federal civil service 
which shall be the ceiling established by section 1310 of the 
Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1952 (65 Stat. 757), as amended. In the 
event section 1310, supra, is repealed, OPM is authorized to fix such 
limitation on the number of permanent employees in the Federal civil 
service as it finds necessary to meet the needs of the service.
    (c) OPM may determine the types, duration, and conditions of 
indefinite and temporary appointments, and may prescribe the method for 
replacing persons holding such appointments.