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New sick leave rules for federal workers
Washington Post ^ | December 6, 2010 | Ed O'Keefe

Posted on 12/07/2010 11:03:19 AM PST by fruser1

Federal workers are preparing for a two-year freeze in pay, but they can also expect some positive changes to their sick leave policy in the new year.

Starting Jan. 3, federal workers may swap up to 26 weeks of sick leave for unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for family members sick with serious communicable diseases, including the flu. They may also use the benefit to care for an ill or injured family member serving in the military.

In both cases, workers could receive up to 30 days of advanced sick leave if necessary, the Office of Personnel Management announced Friday.

Workers might choose to use unpaid FMLA leave because they can afford to take the time off without pay. Or they might want to use unpaid leave because they have a relatively low sick leave balance and are concerned about preserving enough leave time for future personal need. For example, pregnant women who are trying to accrue paid leave time could take advantage of the unpaid leave option to care for a severely ill or injured relative.

snip

As defined by OPM, family members are spouses, children, foster children, stepchildren, stepparents, grandparents and grandchildren, and same-sex or heterosexual domestic partners. The definitions were expanded to include same-sex relationships in June as part of President Obama's pledge to expand worker benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian federal workers.

snip

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: benefits; budget; federal
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Wouldn't the most painless way to cut the employement expense of government workers be to simply do away w/such generous leave policies?

Even if not actually "spent" in a particular year, accrued leave benefits remain "on the books" as part of the overall budget and we have to pay taxes to cover that "line item".

This'd go for state & local as well as the feds.

1 posted on 12/07/2010 11:03:23 AM PST by fruser1
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To: fruser1

There is no real freeze in pay. They will still have step increases for seniority and all that.


2 posted on 12/07/2010 11:04:15 AM PST by GeronL
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To: fruser1

See what happens when you don’t give a two percent pay raise. lol. Good for the Government Workers who are hard workers regardless of what FREEPERS say. I tell you it is amusing how you guys THINK you know but don’t really as you don’t work with government workers. Most that I know work 14-16 hours a day (salary workers and no overtime or comp time).


3 posted on 12/07/2010 11:06:06 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: fruser1

I need new sick rules imposed on my boss.

How come I cant call in “disgusted” and get paid...?


4 posted on 12/07/2010 11:07:34 AM PST by mmercier
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To: napscoordinator
See what happens when you don’t give a two percent pay raise

Considering millions of private-sector workers haven't gotten a raise in years, I'd say you can take your public-sector sense of entitlment and stuff it.

5 posted on 12/07/2010 11:08:32 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: GeronL

Good for them. It is called promotion or longevity. If this is the way that civilians want it than they should also not get any additional funds from anything. My brother is an Engineer (civilian company) who got a promotion mid Summer so don’t act like civilians are getting the shaft....They get promotions too.....if you want a government freeze than a civilian freeze should be implemented too.


6 posted on 12/07/2010 11:08:58 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: dirtboy

That is such a dumb statement. There are 2.15 million government workers to your 100 million civilian workers. So your millions is a small percentage. Like I previously wrote, my brother received a promotion mid-summer so what is the big deal? It sounds like such a cop out when people cry about the poor civilian worker not getting raises. You don’t tell me that Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, etc are not getting raises? Please.....I don’t believe it.


7 posted on 12/07/2010 11:12:38 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: napscoordinator
A step increase in senority does not necessarily reflect a change in responsibilities, so once again, you are just being a public-sector shill (surprise).

You really should respect those who are stuck with the tax bill for paying your salary a bit more. You seem to think you are entitled to a bigger bite of my paycheck with each passing year.

8 posted on 12/07/2010 11:13:02 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy

I even got a raise at Subway about five or six times in the last two years working part time. I forgot about that. How can you say that civilians are not getting raises?


9 posted on 12/07/2010 11:13:45 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: napscoordinator
That is such a dumb statement.

Only to someone like you who is insulated from the realities of the private sector.

It sounds like such a cop out when people cry about the poor civilian worker not getting raises.

You sound as clueless as Nancy Pelosi.

You don’t tell me that Doctors, Lawyers, Scientists, etc are not getting raises? Please.....I don’t believe it.

Doctors and Lawyers are seeing cuts in pay as clients have less money for services. I guess that concept goes right over your head, since you can get a raise by Congresscritters and the Executive branch just mandating it, no new business required to support such.

10 posted on 12/07/2010 11:15:24 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: napscoordinator

Yes, I keep forgetting that WE are the servants of government these days.

The government sector is way overpaid.


11 posted on 12/07/2010 11:17:39 AM PST by GeronL
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To: napscoordinator

Ah, so your one experience in a low-wage food-service job gives you insight into the entire private-sector economy. Really brilliant.


12 posted on 12/07/2010 11:18:28 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy

Well you certainly have your opinion but I am just saying that government workers who I DIRECTLY work with get a bad rap. If people would not bad mouth at least the DoD workers then I would not get so worked up. But government workers are more than just IRS, Department of Education and other agencies of that type.


13 posted on 12/07/2010 11:19:30 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: dirtboy

Well it proves that I have some experience. I haven’t heard anything from you at all.


14 posted on 12/07/2010 11:21:15 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: napscoordinator
I work in IT, with a major multinational corporation for a client. I've gotten awards from my client for my work from them. No one in my company has had a raise since 2007. And read articles about the private-sector workplace, and they echo the fact that private-sector pay is largely stagnant and many employees are also facing higher shares of health-care costs.

But I must bow to your part-time Subway sandwich-making experience, I guess.

15 posted on 12/07/2010 11:25:16 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: 4mer Liberal

ping


16 posted on 12/07/2010 11:26:24 AM PST by T Minus Four (Duh. We were talking about in the old days or not-so-distant old days)
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To: fruser1
I don't know of a single company or industry, that 'prepares' or 'is prepared' for the loss of an employee for any extended length of time.

Paid or not ... is that employee really needed?


I have an idea ...

Let's go through the gummint, office by office and determine the necessity, according to the Constitution, for;

The office,
The workers
and the salary.


I think we could across the board do away with 90 or more % of the czars for starters.

And every employee under and around that czar.

17 posted on 12/07/2010 11:28:06 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: dirtboy

Come on you don’t. Look you are right in one area. I am insulated to America as I am in the military stationed over in Sicily working at the Naval Air Station here. The Subway is on base that I do in the evenings and on weekends sometimes. The only thing I wish we could come to an agreement on is that the DoD workers are not horrible. I will agree that the economy in America is horrid.


18 posted on 12/07/2010 11:29:13 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: napscoordinator
I never said DoD workers were horrid.

But federal workers have no business getting a raise in this economy - a raise comes out of taxpayers who largely haven't had a raise themselves in several years, so a raise for federal workers means a decrease in take-home pay for private-sector workers.

19 posted on 12/07/2010 11:33:27 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy

I can agree with that. Sorry that I get crazy especially when speaking about DoD workers. I wish they could split the DoD with the other Federal government workers who do suck....


20 posted on 12/07/2010 11:35:40 AM PST by napscoordinator
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