Sick leave may be used to care for a family member with a serious health condition. Image: Jarretera/Shutterstock.com By: Reg Jones
Two of the most important benefits provided to federal employees are annual leave and sick leave. And they are among the ones that generate the most frequent questions. Over the last two weeks, I wrote about annual leave, how it is accumulated, how it can be used, and what its value is to you when you either leave government or retire. This time I want to write about another form of leave: sick leave. It’s one of the most valuable benefits provided to federal employees. Let me explain why.
Earning Leave
Unlike annual leave, sick leave is earned at a constant rate. For all full-time employees, that’s four hours for each biweekly pay period. For part-time employees, it’s 1 hour for every 20 hours in a pay status. That’s true no matter how long you work for the federal government.
Accumulating Leave
Unlike annual leave, there are no limits on the amount of sick leave you may accumulate. In fact, a healthy employee who never took an hour of sick leave would accumulate 3,120 hours in a 30-year career. Accumulation of sick leave early in a career is especially important because the federal government has no short-term disability program.
Using Leave
Sick leave may be used for a wide variety of purposes. First and foremost is for your own medical needs. These include being incapacitated for the performance of your duties because of physical or mental illness, injury, pregnancy or childbirth. If your need for sick leave exceeds three days, your agency may require you to provide a medical certificate or other acceptable evidence that you are, in fact, ill. In some cases, your agency may require such evidence for absence of fewer than three days.
Second, sick leave also may be used for family care or bereavement purposes. In most cases you may use up to 104 hours of sick leave to provide care for a family member who is either incapacitated or who needs medical, dental or optical examination or treatment. Similarly, it may be used if a family member dies or to attend the funeral. However, there are limits on using leave in this manner. While you have a right to use 40 hours for these purposes in each leave year, you may only use the additional 64 hours if you maintain a balance of 80 hours of sick leave in your account. (The number of hours available to part-time employees is proportionately less.)
Third, sick leave may be used to care for a family member with a serious health condition. Most employees may use up to 12 workweeks of sick leave each year for this purpose. However, if you previously used any portion of the 104 hours of sick leave mentioned above for general family care and bereavement purposes, that amount would have to be subtracted from the 12-week entitlement. Likewise, if you use the 12 workweeks of sick leave to care for a family member with a serious health condition, you could not use the 104 hours in the same leave year for general family care and bereavement purposes.
Note: If you have exhausted all your sick and annual leave, the Leave Transfer Program permits employees to donate annual leave directly to you. There is no limit on the amount that you may receive. However, there are some restrictions on both the donor and the recipient. For example, any unused donated annual leave must be returned to the leave donor(s) when the medical emergency ends.
Advanced sick leave
If you have a medical emergency or are engaged in the adoption of a child and don’t have enough sick leave to cover the situation, your agency – in its discretion – may advance you a maximum of 30 days. Further, it may advance you a maximum of 5 days for family care or bereavement purposes.
Donated sick leave
If you have exhausted all your sick and annual leave, your fellow employees can donate annual leave directly to you without limit. However, any unused annual leave donated to you must be returned to the leave donor(s) when the medical emergency ends.
Sick leave and retirement
When you retire, your unused sick leave will be added to your years of service. If you have been sparing in your use of sick leave, this can result in a real boost in your annuity. That’s because 174 hours of unused sick leave will increase your length of service by one month, 2,087 hours by one year. In a sense, sick leave is the gift that keeps on giving!
Former head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management, and longtime FEDweek contributor, Reg Jones is known throughout the federal workforce community as an authority on pay and benefits.
