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vvEPA
210-K-95-002
August 1995
Update On Leave
Benefits
United States Environmental Protection Agency - 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20460
Office of Administration and
Resources Management (3634)
Family and Medical Leave
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INTRODUCTION
This publication contains
current information about
six Federal leave benefits
that are either new or have
changed significantly as a
result of recently enacted
laws or new regulations
issued by the Office of
Personnel Management. It
should answer most of the
questions that employees
and supervisors have about
these leave benefits and
how they are administered.
After reading this booklet,
if you still have an
unanswered question or
would like more
information, you should
contact your local servicing
human resources staff.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Sick Leave to Care for a Family Member 1
Sick Leave for Adoption 2
Leave to Serve as a Bone-Marrow or Organ Donor 3
Recrediting of Sick Leave 3
EPA Leave Bank and Leave Transfer Programs 3
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 4
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 5, Library (PL-12J)
77 West Jackson Boulevard, 12th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604-3590
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SICK LEAVE TO
CARE FOR A
FAMILY MEMBER
(THE FAMILY-
FRIENDLY LEAVE
ACT)
Beginning December 2,
1994, employees can use
limited amounts of sick
leave to care for family
members who are ill or
require medical, dental or
optical examination. Sick
leave may also be used to
make arrangements for or
to attend the funeral of a
family member. Pull-time
employees may use 40
hours of sick leave annually
regardless of their current
sick leave balance. If you
have no sick leave to your
credit, you may be
advanced this leave at the
discretion of your
supervisor.
ADDITIONAL LEAVE
If you can maintain a
balance of at least 80 hours
of sick leave (this is a
rolling balance after the
leave to be used is
deducted), you may be
granted an additional 64
hours beyond the basic 40
hour entitlement. In other
words, you could be granted
your entire 104 hour
annual accrual of sick leave
for family care or
bereavement purposes, as
long as your sick leave
balance does not fall below
80 hours.
PART-TIME EMPLOYEE
BENEFITS
Part-time employees are
entitled to these new sick
leave benefits on a prorated
basis. Their initial
entitlement regardless of
their sick leave balance is
the number of hours in
their weekly tour of duty.
For example, a part-time
employee working 30 hours
a week, would be entitled to
use 30 hours of sick leave
for family care purposes.
The balance they must
maintain in their sick leave
account in order to receive
additional leave is twice the
number of hours in their
weekly tour of duty (using
the example above...60
hours). Their maximum
annual entitlement is the
total number of sick leave
hours they would accrue in
one year.
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REPORTS
Because the Family-Friendly
Leave Act is a pilot
program only authorized
for three years, the Office
of Personnel Management is
requiring all agencies to
make periodic reports on
employees' use of this new
leave benefit. Since EPA
does not have a special
timecard code for this type
of leave, supervisors should
ensure that employees who
request it put a note in the
remarks section of the SF-
71, "Application for
Leave". Our Agency Budget
Officers will periodically
collect and report data
about family-friendly leave
usage to the EPA Office of
the Comptroller.
SICK LEAVE FOR
ADOPTION
Effective September 30,
1994, you are permitted to
use unlimited sick leave for
purposes related to the
adoption of a child. Sick
leave may be used for
appointments with adoption
agencies, social workers,
and attorneys; to attend
court proceedings; for
required travel; and any
other activities necessary
for the adoption process.
RETROACTIVE BENEFITS
You may substitute sick
leave for all or any portion
of annual leave used for
adoption-related purposes
retroactive to September
30, 1991. This date marked
the end of an experimental
program testing the
feasibility of using sick
leave for adoption. If you
want to request that your
leave records be adjusted
accordingly, you may send
a memo to the Washington
Financial Center explaining
the circumstances. You
have until September 30,
1996 to make this request.
You should be aware that
the retroactive substitution
of sick leave for annual
leave late in the year may
put some of your annual
leave at risk of forfeiture.
If you plan to re-capture
this annual leave, be sure
you have enough time left
in the leave year to use it if
it will result in your having
"excess" annual leave to
your credit. There are no
exceptions to the normal
leave forfeiture rules for
this new benefit program.
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There is no special timecard
code or reporting
requirement for adoption
leave. It is recorded on the
timecard as regular sick
leave.
LEAVE TO SERVE
AS A BONE-
MARROW OR
ORGAN DONOR
Beginning September 30,
1994, Federal employees
are entitled to 7 days of
paid leave each year to
serve as a bone-marrow or
organ donor. This leave is
in addition to any other
annual or sick leave you
might be granted for these
purposes. This new leave
entitlement is considered to
be "administrative" leave
and should be recorded on
the timecard as " excused
absence-other."
RECREDITING OF
SICK LEAVE
The three year break-in-
service limitation on the
recredit of sick leave for
Federal employees has been
removed. Former
employees who return to
Federal Service on or after
December 2, 1994, are now
entitled to have their
unused sick leave recredited
in full.
EPA LEAVE BANK
AND LEAVE
TRANSFER
PROGRAMS
EPA has a dual benefit
available to employees
through the leave bank and
leave transfer programs.
Both are forms of employee
leave sharing, and have
identical criteria for
qualifying as a leave
recipient. Both allow
employees who experience a
medical emergency which
causes them to exhaust
their available leave to
receive donations of leave
from either the bank or
from fellow employees. The
medical emergency may be
personal or one that affects
a family member.
Under the leave bank
program, employees must
be members of the bank by
having contributed a
membership fee (i.e., 4, 6,
or 8 hours, depending on
their annual leave earning
category) before they can
receive any leave from the
bank. Under the leave
transfer program,
employees do not pay
membership fees. If they
qualify as a leave recipient,
they may receive
contributions of annual
leave only from fellow
employees. In addition, all
employees may both donate
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leave to and receive
donations of annual leave
from employees of other
agencies.
ADVANTAGES OF THE
BANK PROGRAM
Though employees who
experience a medical
emergency can receive
donations of leave from co-
workers, it sometimes
might not be enough to rely
on these donations to avoid
being in an unpaid leave
status. All employees
should seriously consider
joining the leave bank. You
can receive donations from
co-workers, and have the
central pool of leave bank
hours to draw upon if
needed. You may join the
leave bank only during an
official open season, usually
held annually in the fall.
At present, 44% of EPA
employees are leave bank
members.
The leave bank has its own
unique timecard code.
Leave used under the leave
transfer program is
recorded as regular annual
leave.
THE FAMILY AND
MEDICAL LEAVE
ACT OF 1993
This law prescribes family
leave requirements for the
private sector as well as for
Federal employees. The
Department of Labor has
issued implementing
regulations for private
industry, but the Office of
Personnel Management has
not yet completed final
regulations for the Federal
sector. We are currently
using the interim
regulations to administer
the program in EPA.
ENTITLEMENT
The Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA) provides
covered employees with
entitlement to 12
workweeks of unpaid leave
during any 12 month period
for the following purposes:
the birth of a son or
daughter and the
care of the newborn;
the placement of a
son or daughter with
you for adoption or
foster care;
the care of your
spouse, son,
daughter, or parent
who has a serious
health condition; or
your own serious
health condition that
makes you unable to
perform the
essential functions of
your position.
JOB AND BENEFITS
PROTECTION
Employees who take leave
under FMLA must be
returned to their old
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position or to an equivalent
position with benefits, pay
status, etc. comparable to
the one they left. You may
maintain health benefits
coverage the same as other
employees on extended
LWOP. You either pay the
employee share of the
premium on a current basis
or pay upon your return to
work.
ADVANCE NOTICE AND
MEDICAL CERTIFICATION
Employees who request
FMLA leave are required to
give their supervisors
notice of their intent at
least 30 days in advance,
or as soon as practicable.
Supervisors may request
that employees provide
medical certification for
FMLA leave either for the
employee's condition or the
condition of the family
member requiring the
employee's care.
SCHEDULING LEAVE
FMLA leave may be used
full-time, part-time (e.g.,
half-days), or
intermittently. You may
elect to substitute other
paid leave for any unpaid
leave approved under
FMLA.
ADDITIONAL LEAVE
When planning for extended
leave with employees,
supervisors should
remember that the 12 week
LWOP absence is only a
minimum entitlement, and
that additional periods of
leave may be approved at
your discretion. In
addition, you need to be
aware that accrued or
accumulated leave that
employees are already
"entitled" to does not count
toward their minimum 12
week FMLA leave
entitlement. For example,
an employee with a
medically certified period of
incapacitation cannot be
denied any sick or annual
leave requested to cover the
absence, as long as they
have a sufficient amount of
earned leave to their credit.
Therefore, any leave of this
type previously used or
projected to be used may
not be included in
determining your
employee's total period of
absence. Employees are not
entitled to advanced leave
for any reasons. Approval
of advanced leave is always
discretionary with
supervisors.
There is no special timecard
code for FMLA leave.
FMLA absences are
recorded as regular sick,
annual, LWOP, etc.
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