Obama to give federal employees six weeks' maternity leave

The Guardian ^ | 1-14-2015 | Dan Roberts

[Citizen Zed]

Federal employes will be given at least six weeks of paid leave to care for new children under plans unveiled by the White House to kick-start legislative efforts to close the gap in family benefits offered by the US and other wealthy countries.

Democrats have been pushing for better maternity and sick leave rights for over a decade in Congress with little success, but plans by Barack Obama to back the passage of a Healthy Families Act with the executive action for government workers and $2.2bn of new funding for state efforts would be the first time the president has acted on the issue.

The long-stalled legislation would also allow workers in the private sector to earn up to seven days a year of paid sick time and although it is still opposed by most Republicans, Obama’s intervention ahead of the State of Union address next week suggests Democrats hope to make the policy an issue for emerging 2016 presidential candidates.

[blueplum]

This “leave” stuff, along with the ‘free’ jrcollege, seems more directed at the uninformed and uneducated of the recently arrived illegal type than the average generational American who already knows the game. Last week we were told that smaller government was racist and here Zero is this week pushing the perks of government jobs.

[AdaGray]

How about making them pay their past due income taxes.

[grania]

This shouldn't be by Executive Order, that would be one more anti constitutional act by Obama. Because I support life, I support this six weeks of paid leave for childbirth. There have to be safeguards that women don't take the time then leave the job to keep it honest.

If this keeps just one woman away from the abortion clinic, it's worth it.

[sphinx]

and where does he get the power to do this.

The story says the maternity leave will be an "advance" on future earned leave. I do not know if there is precedent for this. I suspect not. I am aware that unused federal leave can be donated. This is fairly common. Federal employees get fairly lavish leave as it is. People are busy, they find it hard to get away, and leave stacks up. Agencies turn into ghost towns in December as employees in use or lose situations take off, and a great deal of leave is surrendered anyhow. In such situations, donating leave to a coworker with a major medical issue is eminently rational, as well as decent. But I have never heard of borrowing ahead. This would seem to me to involve an expenditure of funds for an as-yet unearned, future benefit, and I would think that would require statutory authority.

[Rome2000]

90% of government employees NEVER work anyway.

They BS and gossip all day when they aren’t busy surfing the internet and taking 2 hour lunches, when they bother to show up at all.

If regular people could see what these gritters are up to all help would break loose.

[Gaffer]

He probably may have the power to dictate the rules under which a government employee’s benefits are described and administered, but he doesn’t have the power to increase the funding under which it is executed. That’s the problem. The only way for the government agencies who have to administer the extra benefit to pay for it is through increased payroll deductions it charges all the employees.

[Seattle Conservative]

“How about making them pay their past due income taxes.”

Greta mentioned this last night on her show. She said that the IRS said they can’t do blah, blah, blah because their budget was cut by about $746 million (I don’t recall the exact number, but I think that’s close). She said what about the $X million they spent on seminars last year and what about making the Fed employees who owe taxes (IIRC it was about $3.6 Billion) pay their back taxes. She went on to say that the Fed pays these employees, so it would be easy enough to deduct the amount owed from their paychecks.

[informavoracious]

Pregnancy itself is only a disability if you have complications. The disability designation I was referring to is for recovery after childbirth. I guess we could just drop ‘em in the rice paddy, toss ‘em on our back and get back to work.

[Fledermaus]

We have a winner. Evil thrives when good men do nothing.

[amigatec]

The way Federal leave works is this.

Unless you prior military service you start at Leave Group 1, with prior service you start at Leave Group 2

For the first 5 years you are Leave Group 1 you get 4 hours annual leave every 2 weeks.
After 5 years you go to Leave Group 2 you get 6 hours every 2 weeks.
After 15 years you go to Leave Group 3 and get 8 hours every 2 weeks.

Most Fed employees can only carry over 250 hours before you start to lose, Sick leave there is no limit. When you retire you can count Annual Leave towards retirement, but sick leave you lose.

Every body gets 4 hours sick every 2 weeks.

Annual leave is considered a right, but sick leave is a benefit.

The way the sick leave rules are set up, its VERY easy to abuse the system, most Fed employees don’t have any sick leave, as soon as get any built up they call in.

[amigatec]

Only Annual Leave can be donated.

[amigatec]

A Federal Employee only earns 4 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks.

6 weeks of sick leave is 240 hours, if you don't use any sick leave, it will take 2 years to pay it all back, not to mention that while all of this is going, the Government is paying their part of the Health Insurance and 401k.

[meyer]

All right, if women get 6 weeks, then men should get 6 weeks also. Or, they should be paid more for the simple fact that they are on the job more.

Pay should be tied to productivity, not gender.

[tanknetter]

They can already take 12 weeks leave without pay. And they accrue 104 hours (over 2.5 weeks of sick leave a year). So they could have 5 weeks paid leave if they’d just space their children every other year. And if they’ve been there 3 years, they get about 4 weeks of annual leave. And they get two weeks of holidays. And if they work a compressed schedule, they’ll get another 26 or 52 days off a year.

Sick leave is a flat 4 hours per 2-week pay period for Federal workers.

On top of that they get 4 hours per 2-week pay period through the first three years. Then 6 hours through year 15 and then 8 hours until retirement.

HOWEVER, there's a nice little trick that inbound govies can use to get more leave from the start. When offered the position (Step 1 of the lowest grade for the position) they can say they are dissatisfied and want better pay and leave. At that point the hiring manager (rather than HR) steps in to negotiate for a higher starting step and better leave. All the hiring manager has to do is write up a quickie justification that will pass muster with the HR weenies.

So, for instance, a new govie can get boosted up to 6 or even 8 hours leave per pay period from the start. OR, if that's too much to justify (even the HR weenies have their limits), the hiring manager can say that they're qualified for the leave granted to govies with 10 years in. So the new govie starts with 6 hours per pay period, but jumps up to 8 hours after only five years.

Now there is a use-or-lose limit (cap of 240 hours carried over year to year) on annual leave. But sick leave keeps accruing and accruing and accruing. I knew one govie with over 900 hours of accumulated sick leave after 10 years in, and that was apparently not all that unusual.

[PAR35]

Sick leave is a flat 4 hours per 2-week pay period for Federal workers.

Sick leave is a flat 4 hours per 2-week pay period for Federal workers.

Yes, and 4 x 26 = 104.

You don't want to take sick leave, though. When you retire, you get hour for hour credit as time worked for retirement. So if you retire at 30 years, and have a couple of thousand hours of sick leave, you have 31 years of creditable service, not 30 years, resulting in a boost to your pay.

Of course, if someone's been around long enough that they are on CSRS instead of FERS, they've hit the jackpot any way you count it.