Advocating for Feds to Keep Their Earned Leave
Much of what we do here at the Federal Managers Association comes down to trying to get a square deal for feds. We recognize that federal managers do critical work on behalf of the country, and that without them and the work they do, the country would not function as well as it does. From disaster response to building transportation infrastructure to protecting our national security, feds do the hard work of keeping our country safe, prosperous, and strong.
This has been truer during the COVID-19 pandemic than at almost any time in living memory. With the federal workforce already stretched thin by reduced resources and increased responsibilities, COVID-19-inflicted additional budget shortages, and the difficulties caused by the inability to have high-risk personnel physically in workplaces, a huge number of feds have had no ability to take advantage of their accumulated earned annual leave. With the end of the year coming up, feds would either be forced to sacrifice the leave they earned while serving the country because their dedicated service prevented them from taking it as normal, or they would have to compete with their colleagues for time off at the end of the year. Does this seem fair to you?
Yeah. It didn’t seem fair to us either.
This injustice to feds has motivated us to make restoring and protecting annual leave put at risk because of the pandemic (and the inspiring response to it by our hardworking feds) a top FMA priority. Fortunately, we aren’t alone. There is significant movement on this issue, and we have strong support in Congress on it. We want to showcase the FMA-supported efforts of Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) on this issue.
Congresswoman Wexton introduced the Federal Frontline Worker Leave Protection Act (H.R. 6733) in May as a stand-alone bill to protect the leave of feds working on the COVID-19 response. FMA endorsed this bill and applauded the Congresswoman’s efforts on feds’ behalf. While H.R. 6733 has not moved, Congresswoman Wexton offered the language as an amendment to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The amendment was adopted, and FMA will work to not only protect this language in the final conference report, but also to expand it. Further, Senator Hirono has drafted legislation that would protect all feds’ use-it-or-lose-it leave and would apply to any future declared pandemic. We have endorsed this draft and will work with Congresswoman Wexton and Senator Hirono to get their legislation signed into law.
Senator Brian Schatz has introduced the Federal Labor-Management COVID Partnership Act (S. 347) with the goal of giving feds a voice on telework, safety policies, leave, and other relevant policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. If enacted, FMA would sit on this task force on managers’ behalf. We consider this potential task force to be an invaluable resource for protecting feds’ earned annual leave from being unfairly forfeited as a result of COVID-19, as well as many other issues raised by the pandemic, and have enthusiastically endorsed S. 4347 and will work to pass it into law.
FMA applauds the efforts of our allies in Congress, both the sponsors of the previously mentioned legislation and the bipartisan supporters of such bills. As federal managers, we want to reward our hardworking employees who showed up at work throughout the pandemic, not punish them by forcing them to lose hard-earned annual leave. We believe this should be a top priority for Congress.
The views reflected in this column are those of FMA and do not necessarily represent the views of FEDmanager. To learn more about the Federal Managers Association (FMA), visit their website: FedManagers.org.