Credit Previously Accrued Unused Federal Sick Leave

5. Give returning employees credit for previously accrued unused
federal sick leave.

The director of OPM will issue regulations by spring 1994 that would
recredit unused sick leave to employees who have been separated and
subsequently reemployed by the federal government, regardless of the
length of separation.

Current regulations recredit sick leave only if employees return to
federal service within 3 years and do not take into account the changing
needs of employees and the change in demographics since their
implementation in 1962. Although only a relatively small number of
employees are affected by the 3-year limitation, OPM found that "about
60 percent of all Federal employees who are reemployed after a break in
service of more than 3 years are women, and about 65 percent are
reemployed in grades GS-1 through 7."(27)

Endnotes

27. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "Options for Leave Reform,"
Washington, D.C., September 1991, p. 6.