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FERS Sick-Leave Bill Introduced
APWU Web News Article #013-09, Feb. 12, 2009
Two Virginia congressmen introduced legislation Feb. 10 that is intended to correct an inequity between the FERS and CSRS retirement systems.
The “FERS Sick Leave Equity Act” (H.R. 958), introduced by Rep. Jim Moran (D) and Frank Wolf (R), provides Federal Employees Retirement System employees a sick-leave benefit equal to that received by employees under the Civil Service Retirement System. For the purposes of determining an annuity during retirement, the benefit adds unused sick leave to the number of years an employee has worked.
“FERS ‘use-it or lose-it’ system for sick leave hampers productivity and increases training costs,” Moran said in a press release. “We need to be incentivizing the accrual of sick leave, not encouraging employees to call in sick in the weeks leading up to retirement.”
Proponents of the measure cite data going back nearly four decades. In 1969, the Civil Service Commission — the forerunner to the Office of Personnel Management — estimated that half of all retiring federal employees had zero sick leave; reports showed that retiring employees used an average of 40 sick-leave days in their last year of employment.
Following these reports, the sick-leave benefit for CSRS employees was instituted. The FERS system was created in 1986, but did not include the “unused-leave benefit.”
“FERS employees have long seen this as a gross inequity,” said Myke Reid, director of the APWU Legislative and Political Department. “We are pleased that Rep. Moran and Rep. Wolf have re-introduced this bill, which appears to have broad support on Capitol Hill.”
Rep. Wolf said that the “bipartisan legislation” will save taxpayers’ money. “It will increase efficiency by cutting down on use of sick leave prior to an employee’s retirement, which has cost taxpayers $68 million each year,” a figure he said is based on a recent OPM analysis.
“Congress ignored the lessons learned under CSRS and history is repeating itself,” Moran said. “Our federal workforce is the best in the world; they deserve a benefit designed to reward, not punish, those who play by the rules.”
