 Leave Policy [Home] [Up] [Handbook Contents] Among those employees who are exempt from the leave law are employees who do not have established tours of duty or training position fellows; e.g., Commissioned Corps Officers, Postdoctoral Fellows, Visiting Fellows, Biotechnology Fellows, Epidemiology Fellows, Special Volunteers, etc.) and congressional employees. For information on leave policy for these groups, see "Appointment Mechanisms." For most other civil servants of the federal government, provisions have been made for authorized absence from work, usually through earned leave. These provisions enable employees to take off for vacations or personal business, or when they are ill. Annual leave is earned on the basis of years of federal service as follows:
Sick Leave Sick leave is earned on the basis of 4 hours per pay period for full-time employees and 1 hour for each 20 hours in pay status for part-time employees. There is no limit on the amount of sick leave that can be accumulated. No lump sum payment is made for unused sick leave when employees leave the federal service.
Family Medical Leave
In addition to other paid time off available, employees (excluding Commissioned Corps Officers, intermittent employees, employees with temporary appointments of less than 13 months, and individuals not appointed by the Government) with at least 3 months of civilian service are entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within any 12 month period for the birth and care of a child; making arrangements for adoption or foster care; the care of a spouse, son, daughter, or parent of the employee with a serious health condition; or the employee's own serious health condition. Under the Federal Employees Family-Friendly Leave Act, eligible employees (those subject to the Federal Civil Service leave system) may now use their sick leave to care for a family member, to make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member, or to attend the funeral of a family member. In the past, employees could use their sick leave to care for a family member only if the person had a contagious disease. Under the new rules, all employees may use 40 hours of paid sick leave during the leave year to care for a family member because of physical or mental illness; injury; pregnancy; childbirth; or medical, dental, or optical examination or treatment. Employees who maintain a sick leave balance of at least 80 hours are eligible to use an additional 64 hours of sick leave for the above reasons. Two additional significant changes in leave entitlements are:
Leave Sharing The Leave Transfer Program is designed to help employees who are experiencing a medical or family emergency and who have exhausted all of their available leave. They can receive donations of annual leave from fellow employees to help ease financial hardships that would be caused by being forced to take extended leave without pay or resigning from their jobs. An employee wishing to receive leave under this program must make written application to the agency describing the reasons why the leave is needed and may be required to submit certification from physicians or other appropriate experts to provide justification. To make a donation, an employee submits a request to the agency that a specified number of hours of his or her accrued annual leave be transferred to a specified recipient. Annual leave may not be transferred to the donor's immediate supervisor. An employee who receives and uses such leave continues to be paid at his or her pay rate as if in work status. When the medical emergency ends any unused transferred leave is restored to the donors on a prorated basis. Contact your personnel Generalist for more information regarding this program. Employees summoned to court as witnesses on behalf of the U.S. government, the District of Columbia, a state or local government or a private party in a judicial proceeding, or to serve on a jury are authorized to receive pay during such absence from work status without charge to leave. Any fees payable for such service must be collected and turned into the employing agency. Any payments designated as expenses by the court or other appropriate authority may be retained. Employees may be granted leave without pay at their request and at the discretion of your leave approving official. It may be granted whether or not the employees have annual or sick leave to their credit. Extended leave without pay may be approved for such purposes as attending to parental or other family responsibilities, education which would be of benefit to the agency, recovery from illness or disability or protection of employee status and benefits pending action on claims for disability retirement or injury compensation. Excused absence is time off without charge to leave or loss of pay. This leave is sometimes referred to as administrative leave. Following is a list of circumstances when granting excused absence applies:
The listing above is not all-inclusive. Consult your Administrative Officer Office for additional guidance. To the extent that modifications in work schedules do not interfere with accomplishing an agency's mission, a federal agency must approve an employee's request to adjust work schedules for purpose of taking time off without charge to leave or entitlement to overtime pay when the employee's personal religious beliefs require that they abstain from work during certain periods of a workday or workweek. Any employee who elects to work alternative hours for this purpose is entitled to an equal amount of time off (hour for hour) from his or her scheduled tour of duty. An employee may work such alternative hours (compensatory time) before or after the grant of compensatory time off. A grant of compensatory time off must be repaid by the appropriate amount of work within a reasonable period.
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