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By: FEDweek StaffThe administration’s budget repeats prior proposals to combine annual leave and sick leave into “paid time off” while not going into detail.
The budget says the administration “proposes to transition the existing civilian leave system to a model used in the private sector to grant employees maximum flexibility by combining all leave into one paid time off category.” It says that “the total leave days would be reduced” but as in the past it does not say by how much.
Nor does it address how to reconcile the differences between the two types of leave, such as the limits on carrying unused annual leave, but not sick leave, from one year to the next, and the ability to credit unused sick leave, but not annual leave, toward a retirement benefit calculation.
Also as in the past, the budget proposes creating a short-term disability program, also with no detail. That idea was last explored seriously more than a decade ago but then dropped after an initial study showed a high potential cost in premiums, all of which would have been paid by the enrollees.
