Allow Sick Leave for Dependent Care, Adoption

4. Allow employees to use sick leave to care for dependents.(23)

The director of OPM should issue regulations by spring 1994 that will
allow employees to use accrued sick leave to care for sick or elderly
dependents. OPM should also propose legislation that will allow
employees to use accrued sick leave to make adoptive arrangements.  The
definition of child, spouse, and parent should be consistent with
definitions contained in the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.

This policy indicates that the federal government recognizes the burden
family illness places on employees and was recommended in part by the
Merit Systems Protection Board in 1991.(24) The Bureau of Labor
Statistics found that in the private sector, 36 percent of employees can
use sick leave to care for a sick child.(25) OPM found that in the
public sector:

Forty-six State governments, whose sick leave accrual policies
generally are more comparable to those of the federal government, allow
use of sick leave for [family illnesses]. The State of New York, for
example, implemented such a policy by regulation in 1957.  New York
State allows employees to use up to 15 days of sick leave each year in
the event of family illness or death and reports that this benefit has
not generated administrative problems or pressure to expand the
circumstances under which sick leave may be used.(26)

Endnotes

23. Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, sec. 610.401.

24. MSPB, Balancing Work Responsibilities and Family Needs, p.  79.

25. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee
Benefits in Medium and Large Private Establishments (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), p.  16.

26. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "Options for Leave Reform,"
Washington, D.C., September 1991, p. 5.