Return to Article: Taking Your (Sick) Leave
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86687
could you explain to everybody that under the csrs sick leave plan if you have say 3000 hours sick leave that you still only get credit towards your retirement for 2087 hours which is 1 year,and the remainder sick leave you have left over you get nothing for,am i correct in this matter!
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78444
I am under CSRS and will be retiring with 42 years of Federal Service. I will also have approximately 2700 hours of unused sick leave. Since my 42 years equal the maximun 80% I can draw, what will happen to my unused sick leave? Thank you!
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65385
Question:I'm under the CSRS 35 years of service age 54 3/4 Should I lock in my time there& switch over to FERS> to gain needed quarters for SS get into the savings plan? Thank you for your concern in the above matter. Happy Holidays
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65358
To Joe Weiss - At the time of your trans-fer to FERS, your sick leave balance should have been frozen at whatever amount you had accumulated. OPM should be able to retrieve that info. As long as you don't dip into that number, it is credited towards retirement. If you use your frozen sick leave, then you can't accumulate more and apply it towards the frozen amount.
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57991
I am a FERS transfer from the time FERS was created. At the time of transfer I had many SL hours. I would like to retire and get the time in service due me based on the SL, but my agency doesn't have the record of the SL and says that my previous agency doesn't have the information either. They seem to be putting the responsibility on me for having the old pay statements. Does anyone know how OPM deals with a situation like this?
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57868
For approx. 10 years and 10 months, I worked for the USDA-ARS under the Civil Service Retirement system. I left USDA-ARS (GS-9 Step 6) in good standing and took a job with private industry. When I left, I had 461.25 hours of sick leave. I lateraled back into USDA-FSIS as a GS-5 Step 10. I was told that I could join FERS or continue under CSRS. I chose FERS. Now, OPM is telling me that I lost my 461.25 hours of sick leave (that was never given to me when I returned to USDA-FSIS service) even though I had earned it under the Civil Service Retirement System for nearly 11 years. OPM says it cannot be used in any way even though I will have 30 years at retirement. Is this correct?
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50014
The simple solution would be to do away with sick leave all together and giving workers more "general" Leave hours per pay period. If sick, the worker would use their general leave--if healthy, the worker gets more vacation time.
In this case we would be incentivized to save our leave--only using sick leave when absoluteltly necessary. We are now incentivized to use every last drop of sick leave...or we lose it.
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41554
Keep chipping away and someday FERS will look just like CSRS.
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31520
I am under CSRS. If I retire on Thursday Jan 3, 2008 will I receive 4 hours sick leave credit for pay perid 26? I am trying to project my sick leave credit to add to my service credit.
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21463
Very frequently government workers comment on the 2,087 number of hours. True, it is an odd number. To adjust for the infrequent years when employees receive 27 pay periods in a year, pay is calculated on dividing your annual salary by 2,087 to come up with your hourly pay which is then multiplied by 80 hours to come up with a person's biweekly pay. Therefore, if you are under CSRS and able to use it for retirement purposes, your sick leave based on 2087 hours for a year.
35-year Government Employee
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21444
To Chief Planning Officer, Bay Pines Fla.
In regards to your question about the hours in the work year, 52 weeks does in fact work out to 2080 hours in a year. The problem is that there are NOT 52 weeks in a year. There are 52 weeks and one day, plus an extra day every leap year. I was in mid-career when this issue arose in the early 1980's during the Reagan Administration. Some "think tank" thought of this, and somehow re-computed the work year, considering the accumulation of these extra days, as averaging another 7 hours per year. (I don't know how they arrived at 7) This resulted in a "pay cut" across the board as our salary (annual salary stayed the same on paper) was divided by an additional 7 hours, resulting in a smaller hourly and therefore bi-weekly rate. It did not mean an actual increase in the number of days worked. For someone making around $60,000 a year it amounted to a reduction of approximately $8.00 per pay period. They also implemented it on the same day as a pay increase so, along with the health insurance increase, it ended up "buried" among the overall changes, and few people, if any, would know exactly how much it cost them. It was another way of the Reagan administration nickel and diming Federal Employees.
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21401
I don't understand where the number 2087 for a year comes from, can you explain? It's not even clear from looking at your table. I particularly don't understand how there can be an uneven number. I get 8 hrs./day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks/year = 2080.
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21297
Now there's a good idea Tip, unfortunately it makes to much sense and will probably never come to pass.
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21241
Okay, there have been points made on both sides of this issue. I, as FERS employee, would like some flexibility in use of my sick leave but understand some folks' desire for CSRS employees to take that leave rather than spreading their germs all around the work place.
I must admit that the same thing, hording of sick leave for retirement purposes, could result from a change to even incremental reimbursement credit for FERS employees. So saying, I ask "Has there ever been a study as to the impact of sick CSRS employees coming to work to save their sick leave?" Do we know that impact? How many other folks got sick due to their fiscal restraint? What were the total work hours (productivity) lost?
Personally, I would appreciate the ability just to be able to transfer my excess sick leave to my spouse, a CSRS employee who has truly used that leave only/solely due to a long term illness that has sucked her balance into the double digits after 30 plus years of employment.
Perhaps that ability would help trim the balances and still encourage those with illnesses who need our support. Perhaps then we FERS employees would not feel so robbed of a benefit our co-workers take for granted; that we can only use in its entirety by abusing the system.
Tip off
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21208
There was a study done by the Congressional Research Service on the usage of sick leave.
The report, which can be accessed by clicking here, showed: FERS employees used more sick leave than CSRS employees as they approached retirement eligibility, and the status as of May 2004 of average hours of sick leave used in the previous year.
There is a chart in the report that clearly shows that FERS employees who are near retirement use more sick leave than their CSRS counterparts.
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21206
I'm on the bubble and don't want to take any sick leave. If I do, I may loose a whole month of seniority. I was planning on retiring (CSRS) after the first 3 days of the month. Wouldn't that reduce the amount of sick leave I would need to equal one month?
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21205
It really irritates me when co-workers come into work sick, because they don't want to use their leave. They have hundreds or thousands of hours available, but they won't use it. Instead they come in and spread their germs around. I'm glad that the "incentive" to save leave is gone under FERS.
If you're sick, stay home!
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21201
Something I rarely see mentioned in discussions about sick leave usage (FERS vs. CRS) is a problem I've encountered where sick CRS employees come to work sneezing and hacking all over everyone because they are hoarding their sick leave in order to retire a day earlier. I wish they would just stay home.
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21197
Let's set the record straight from the beginning. Annual leave is earned however sick leave is given! That is why there is a limit to the amount of annual leave you can carryover but no limit on sick leave. Businesses must account for any annual leave in excess of 240 hours as a liability on their balance sheet. That is why they limit carryover - so they will not have to show a liability. The government did the same thing but had no reason to do it! Reflects the intelligence level of government management.
Sick leave is not very well-defined. I am sick of working for my boss so I take sick leave. Is that valid? Some would say no and others would say yes. The enforcement of sick leave is so varied that it is a problem within any organization. the cure for sick leave is to allow the organization to award paid sick leave after the fact! A board of review would review every case and determine if the "sick leave" was valid and if it were going to be paid. Likewise, the government could grant 2 week (10 working days) of sick leave every year and reduce it to zero at the end of the year. They could do anything in between. Remember that sick leave is not earned - it is given. The organization can give it in any manner they desire.
Using up sick leave as you approach retirement is a good thing, not a bad thing! The managers have to approve any sick leave taken and if you think everyone is lying then you are saying that again management has proven itself incompetent and not worth paying for!
I must go now. I feel myself getting sick of this discussion, guess I will have to take sick leave!
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21141
Even putting aside the ethical issue of a federal employee telling their employer they are sick when, in fact, they are not (aka "lying"), all FERS and CSRS employees should consider the benefits of their sick leave beyond any effect on retirement. Our sick leave is our only form of disability insurance off the job; it's maternity leave; we can use it for many family illness and bereavement issues. So the term "sick leave" doesn't do it justice.
What is worth pushing for? The ability to donate sick leave instead of annual leave for the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program.
From Not a Sup, Not a Mgr.
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21124
John P
I don't see why it is necessarily a big mistake if a CSRS employee retires at a time other than the last day of the month or the first three days of the following month. As long as you make sure that your accumulated sick leave added to your time in service results in no loss of sick leave credit, what's the problem?
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21118
In the FAA, we got, in response to a union request, data that says our bargaining group members who are FERS, and are within five years of retirement, use about 25 percent more in sick leave than their CRSR counterparts.
The average use of sick leave for those within five years of retirement was 87.5 hours per year for CSRS employees, and 115.8 hours of sick leave used per year for FERS employees.
That is for those within five years of being retirement eligible.
As FAA employees, we tried to bargain to give some reward for turning in FERS sick leave at retirement.
FAA management's response: "You don't have a sick leave problem."
I can't wait to see the next bargaining cycle's numbers.
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21116
This comment is not necessarily related this week's article.
I'm one of those employees who falls in the CSRS offset retirement plan. Information on this plan is limited and most retirement planning seminars barely cover this area if at all.
Tammy Flanagan has touched on this plan's benefits occasionally in relationship to discussion of CSRS/FERS benefits but I wondered if she would do an article on the offset retirement plan. I'm sure there are plenty of us out there on this plan who are beginning to consider retirement.
I've researched myself and think I know what's going to happen but I'd rather not have any surprises when the time comes.
Thank you.
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21107
Just burn all your sick leave before you retire. You earned every minute of it!
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21097
If you have over a year of Sick Leave then subtract 2087 from your total and then use that number in the chart. Your service computation "day of the month" is important because you need sick leave hours to cover the time from the start of the month up to your SCD "day of the month" or you will just lose up to one month of sick leave credit when you retire.
If as a CSRS employee, you retire on a day other than the last day of the month or one of the first three days of the month you will be making a big mistake. Read some of the previous Retirement Planning columns for the reasons why. You also want to complete the work hours in the last pay period so you do not lose 8 hrs A/L and 4 hrs S/L for that period.
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21094
As in court of the prosecution broaches a subject, the defense can run with the ball.
While based on it, even your article "Faking it" never gave concrete figures on the degree of perceived sick leave abuse. What should have been relatively easy would be a comparison of the number of annual sick leave days taken between CSRS and FERS employees.
If this is such an issue, I'm amazed that Congress wouldn't consider a credit either in retirement or reimbursement on an incremental basis. People always like a little padding when making major changes to their life.
The statement, "... the introduction of FERS in 1986 tried to trim the cost of federal employment entitlements and loosen the so-called "golden handcuffs," which forced workers to stay in the civil service or lose valuable benefits."
Didn't that help lead to the looming retirement crisis? Was this program too successful? Wouldn't such an incremental value reimbursement be a relatively cheap method of stemming the outflow of experience?
To my knowledge, there has been no more information on this action and inequity forth coming from any quarter. Would it be possible for us to receive a follow-up report?
Tip off
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21083
One exception to the loss of unused sick leave at retirement exists under FERS. Registered Nurses, usually with the Department of Veterans Affairs, can receive service credit for their unused sick leave in the computation of their FERS annuity. They do not need to have performed any service under the CSRS.
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21078
I think there is something missing from John's chart. From this chart, it would appear that each person needs a different number of hours to obtain credit for a given number of months. The 0 line is the correct number. If I have 1044 hours, I get six months credit. What is this figure of 1148 if my SCD is the 18th? Are you saying I need an additional 100 plus hours over a person whose SCD is the 1st? It would appear there is something you are not explaining.
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21076
The sick leave table in the Feb. 9 column was useful. But what do you do if your sick leave is over the max in the table (over 2081 hours)?
Again, thanks for your column.
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21074
I have more sick leave hours than are shown on the "Converting Unused Sick Leave" table. Can you provide the spreadsheet so I can extend it to include additional hours?
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21073
I worked under CSRS for over 16 years, then resigned in 1985 to work in the private sector. I came back to the VA in 1987 and was initially put back in CSRS and my SL was restored. I then transferred to FERS and have worked over 19 years under FERS. I plan to retire in two years with over 39 years service combined. I have over 2014 hours of SL. My SCD is 08/14/1970. What portion of my accumulated SL can count towards my retirement?
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