This week, the House passed a measure that would grant federal employees in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) credit for unused sick leave in their pension calculations. 

Federal employees in the FERS are generally those hired in or after 1984 who do not have the same benefits as their counterparts in the older retirement system: the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).  Currently, employees covered by FERS the cannot count unused sick leave toward their retirement annuity, but those under CSRS can.

In an attempt to bring fairness to the two groups of federal employees, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), included the measure in a larger, albeit unrelated bill (H.R. 1108) called the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

In an earlier attempt to bring parity to the system, Rep. James Moran (D-VA), introduced a bill that would have provided FERS employees with a one-time payment of up to $10,000 for any remaining sick leave at retirement. The bill didn't get the support it needed to pass, so Waxman attached the policy onto another bill.

The Waxman measure would give FERS employees retiring during the next three years credit for 75 percent of their accrued sick leave. Those retiring later would be able to count all their unused leave.

However, FERS employees have been known to inappropriately use sick leave for annual leave, since there is no incentive to retain the leave, that is, unless one is planning for a long-term illness such as a surgery.

This sentiment was echoed by Rep, Moran, who stated: "Our current use-it-or-lose-it system for FERS employees hurts productivity and increases training costs...We need to be incentivizing the accrual of sick leave, not encouraging people to call in sick in the weeks leading up to retirement."

As expected, Federal employees and managers organizations back the sick leave measure.

“The passage of this bill represents a significant victory for workers enrolled under the (FERS) system,” said Richard N. Brown, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a national union representing 100,000 federal government workers. “Not only does it provide a well-deserved reward for the most dedicated of our public servants, but it does so in a way that ensures their legacy of honest, hard work is passed on to future generations.”

Also included in the bill is a provision that automatically enrolls new federal employees in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the government's retirement program where dollars allocated from paychecks are matched by the federal government.

“Far too many new federal workers were leaving free money on the table by waiting to enroll in the TSP,” said Brown.  “With this bill, new enrollment will occur automatically.  That will be a good thing for young people entering the federal workforce.”

The bill is slated to be voted on in the Senate this week, although it's unlikely the measure will be passed into law before Congress adjourns for the summer.

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