Sick Leave Payback for the Fed's

[gijanetexas]

This sounds good, but I highlighted the sucky parts. I think I will pass on this offer.

From the Federal Times.
FMA praises bill to credit unused sick leave at retirement
By STEPHEN LOSEY
March 11, 2008
A group representing federal managers praised the introduction of a new bill that would pay some retiring federal employees up to $10,000 for their unused sick leave. Darryl Perkinson, national president of the Federal Managers Association, said the measure will encourage many federal employees to avoid taking off unnecessary sick days. Richard Oppedisano, FMA’s national secretary, said federal managers now are seeing many of their employees take more sick days off as they approach retirement because they know they will not be compensated for unused sick leave they’ve accumulated over their careers. “This is a productivity issue,” Oppedisano said. “If they’re not there, someone has to do their job. And that takes away from another job, and you lose that productivity.” Some retiring federal employees would be paid up to $10,000 for their unused sick leave under the bill, introduced March 10 by Rep. James Moran, D-Va. The bill, HR 5573, would affect only federal employees covered under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Currently, employees covered by FERS receive no compensation for sick leave they accumulate over their careers. The bill would compensate FERS-covered employees for all but the first 500 hours of unused sick leave they accumulate when they retire. The bill would pay them 15 percent of the value of that hourly sick leave time up to a maximum of $10,000. In defending his bill, Moran quoted an estimate by the Office of Personnel Management that the federal government loses about $68 million a year in productivity because FERS employees use up increasing amounts of their unused sick leave as they near retirement. “Our current use-it-or-lose-it system under FERS hurts productivity and increases training costs,” Moran said. “We need to be incentivizing the accrual of sick leave, not keeping a policy in place that encourages people to call in sick in the weeks leading up to retirement.” Moran and other supporters of the bill say they expect the compensation provided for in the bill will be enough to discourage many employees from abusing their sick leave. “With any proposal, you’re always going to have your people who look at the glass as half empty” and don’t feel the sick leave payouts would provide enough incentive to keep retiring employees going to work, Perkinson said. But “I’ve gotten e-mails that say, ‘I appreciate your effort; at least I’m going to get something at the end of the rainbow instead of nothing.’ ”

[Bowfish]

I know lots of people that will like that 50 bucks for the 8 hrs they have on the books !!!!!

[gijanetexas]

I sat in LMR today with three members of management telling me how good this is.

So you know it really sucks!

I will use my leave and get 100% of it's value (and I will use it all legally - I have 240+ A/L and 640 or so in S/L, so I am not one of those people who fails to come to work).

[Bowfish]

That was not at you !!! For the people that get 8 and use 8 the same month !!! But it does suck, why would i sell it for 15% ??? worth alot more to me that that !!

[copboy]

Look at it this way. The lines of communication just opened up. Now maybe the AFGE can press this or other congressmen to ammend the bill and make it better. Although $10,000 is better than nothing, which is what we get now. It would also be nice if since this would be pennies on the dollar it would be introduced as tax exempt.

[gijanetexas]

Originally Posted by Bowfish

That was not at you !!! For the people that get 8 and use 8 the same month !!! But it does suck, why would i sell it for 15% ??? worth alot more to me that that !!

I know you weren't talking about me.

I just put that in there because someone would chime in about lazy, banging in, good for nothing staff members, so I thought I would clarify my personal position.

I believe that with both my parents being 70ish and living out of state, at some point (maybe 30 years from now) I will use a considerable amount of FFLA/FMLA, using my sick leave for all of my future medical appointments, plus being sick or injured, also if I ever find someone to sleep with besides my neutered cat I may need more family leave, plus maybe donating blood, bone marrow, organs, etc.

[Bowfish]

OMG that is a cute cat, why find a dog to sleep with !!! LOL

Just wanted to clear up that S/L thing after the A$$ thumping Thorn took on here !!!!! ROTFLMAO !!!!!!!!

[Crosstimbers Okie]

This is a whole lot of nothing.

[KBCraig]

Okay, let's put the numbers on paper, using the 2008 LEO-RUS pay scale.

The maximum career length for BOP is 36 years (minimum age 21, maximum age 57). Sick leave is earned at 4 hours per pay period, or 104 hours per year. The maximum leave accrued would be 3,744 hours.

Subtract 500, and the maximum compensable time is 3,244 hours.

If someone hired in on their 21st birthday and retired as a GS-11 on their 57th birthday without using a single hour of sick leave, that time would be worth $110,101 (not counting the 500 hour minimum, which is worth an additional $16,970). Knock off 85%, and you get $16,515, except they'll only pay $10,000.

So for for $127,000 worth of accrued sick leave, this model employee would receive less than 8% of its value.

Let's look at a career that's actually possible: 25 years of service, retiring as a GL-8 Step 10. Let's assume this employee was extremely conscientious, and only used 100 hours of sick leave in 25 years, leaving 2,000 compensable hours out of 2,600 earned. This employee could cash in for a whopping $8,010, on accrued leave that is worth $66,750, meaning he would net 12% of its value.

A typical 8/10 who has been careful could expect to retire with about 600 hours of leave. Subtract 500 hours, take off 85%, and you get a retirement bonus of $400.50, or just 2.5% of the accrued value of $16,020.

Yeah, this is just a great plan. I'm sure people will opt for this, instead of burning leave. Right?

When people use their sick leave, they add to their years of service and increase their retirement pay. If they take a payout, not only do they get raped on the value of the leave, they also cut their time short and lose retirement money.

If OPM wants to fairly compensate people, unused leave should just be added to the years of service. Workers could go ahead and retire without losing pension money, and the agency could hire a replacement.

[BOP Hack]

KB laid it all out and it was a great explaination. Good Job Bro!!

So now we need to get the word out, and at your next Local meeting bring a copy of what KB wrote above!! Make sure they all understand it's a ripoff!