Senate Shoots Down Fed Employee Sick Leave
Credit
July 24, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - An amendment to
the Defense authorization bill that would have allowed
federal employees under the Federal Employees Retirement
System (FERS) to get credit in their pension calculation for
unused sick leave was withdrawn Thursday.
Supporters say the benefit would have helped prevent
employees from using excessive sick leave prior to
retirement, a problem estimated to cost $68 million in lost
productivity, according to the Federal Times.
The Federal Times reported that Senator Tom Coburn
(R-Oklahoma) said he planned to talk on the Senate floor
Thursday until cloture — a vote to end debate on an issue —
was offered on the amendment. Coburn criticized the
expansion of benefits for employees he said already are
paid better, enjoy better benefits, and have more job
security than most taxpayers.
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) questioned the relevancy
of the amendment, and said the amendment contained too many
items and added new spending to the bill with no
explanation of how the benefits would be paid for.
After several hours, the amendment's main sponsor,
Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) relented and withdrew the
amendment, saying he will look for other bills to which to
attach the amendment, according to the news report.
The legislation passed in the House last month (see
Federal Employees Could Get Sick Leave
Credit under Bill Passed by House
) would have:
-
allowed Federal Employees Retirement System
employees to credit unused sick leave as time worked
when annuities are calculated, a benefit Civil Service
Retirement System (CSRS) employees already have;
-
allowed agencies to temporarily rehire federal
retirees and pay them their full salaries, whereas
currently agencies must obtain a waiver from the Office
of Personnel Management to do that, or bring back
federal employees and dock their pay by the amount of
annuity they receive;
-
provided locality pay for federal employees in
Hawaii, Alaska and U.S. territories, replacing the
current cost-of-living allowances; and
-
allowed the recalculating of annuities, based on
full-time salaries, for CSRS employees who work
part-time at the end of their careers.
Rebecca Moore
editors@plansponsor.com