The memo encourages agencies to provide unpaid leave to all employees regardless of length of service for FMLA-type purposes. Image: Billion Photos/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has told federal agencies that the government “must be a model for providing leave policies, both paid and unpaid, that allow employees time away from work to care for themselves or a loved one.”
“Being a model employer includes updating our workplace policies and practices to reflect the emerging needs of our workforce today and tomorrow. It also requires recognizing an employee’s important caregiving relationships with family members, including extended family and other individuals with equivalent relationships,” says a memo titled Supporting Access to Leave for Federal Employees.
It notes that leave available under the Family and Medical Leave Act applies only after one year of employment. For federal employees, along with employees of larger private sector entities, that law provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per 12 months for certain personal or family medical conditions, for parental purposes or for certain purposes related to personal or family military duty. Since 2020, federal employees have been able to receive paid leave for all or part of those 12 weeks for the covered parental purposes; a House bill in the prior Congress to make all forms of FMLA leave paid for federal employees did not pass and has not been reintroduced.
Employees with less than one year of service may use annual or sick leave for FMLA-type purposes but the memo notes that in that time they “may not have accrued sufficient leave” to cover their needs. It encourages agencies to provide unpaid leave to all employees regardless of length of service for FMLA-type purposes as well as for “bereavement after the death of a family member, including during an employee’s first year of service.”
“By supporting federal employees’ access to leave throughout their service, the federal government will strengthen its ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote, and retain our nation’s talent and address barriers to equal opportunity, especially with respect to women’s participation in the federal workforce,” it says.
The memo also orders OPM to produce within six months a plan to “support federal employees’ access to paid leave, such as sick leave, or leave without pay, for purposes related to seeking safety and recovering from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.”
Such purposes would include, for example, “obtaining medical treatment (inclusive of mental health treatment), pursuing assistance from organizations that provide services to survivors, seeking relocation, or taking related legal action, as well as assisting a family member in engaging in any of these activities,” it says.
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