National Association of Postal 

Supervisors Legislative & Regulatory Update

October 29, 2009

FERS Sick Leave Credit Becomes Law

It's official.  Postal and federal employees who retire under the Federal Employees Retirement System will receive credit for their unused sick leave when they retire.  The new benefit, along with several other civil service pay and retirement provisions, was included in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed into law on Thursday. 

Under the new law, sick leave credit for FERS-covered employees will be phased-in over the next four years, with new retirees receiving receiving a 50 percent credit for unused sick leave from now until Dec. 31, 2013.  Effective January 1, 2014, FERS-covered employees will receive full credit.  The incremental approach toward implementation of the FERS sick leave benefit was necessitated by the added costs of the new benefit and the other new civil service provisions. 

Enactment of the FERS sick leave benefit marks a victory for NAPS and other federal and postal employee groups who have worked hard for years to foster productivity, deter sick leave abuse and provide rough parity with treatment of sick leave by employees in the Civil Service Retirement System.  Employees covered by CSRS already receive credit for sick leave when they retire. 

NAPS President Ted Keating extended his thanks to President Obama, along with Rep. James Moran (D-VA), the long-time champion of the FERS sick leave provision, as well as Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY), Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-AK), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. James Webb (D-VA).  Keating also gave credit to the many NAPS members who lobbied Congress on the issue.

The Defense authorization measure also includes other civil service provisions:

    - Making it easier for federal agencies to rehire federal retirees on a limited, part-time basis, without requiring them to take a cut in their retirement pension;

    - Allowing FERS-covered employees who left and returned to government service to redeposit savings in the retirement system and earn credit for years they already worked in government;

    - Phasing-in a locality-based pay system for federal and postal employees who live and work in Hawaii, Alaska, Virgin Islands and the U.S. Territories.