U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds introduced a bipartisan bill to help federal workers by establishing family and medical leave banks to provide paid leave for Department of Defense (DOD) employees.
The legislation, S. 1131, to expand the department’s leave bank was proposed on April 10 with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
Currently, federal workers are not guaranteed any paid family or medical leave, but S. 1131 would ensure that DOD employees have more paid leave available during critical times.
“A ‘leave bank’ can help employees who have recently given birth or adopted a child, who are taking care of a sick family member or who are facing illness themselves and don’t have enough leave time to cover the hours they need to take off,” Sen. Rounds said.
The current DOD policy lets civilian employees accrue a certain number of hours of paid annual leave and, if unused, carry some over to the next calendar year. However, a statement from Rounds’ office explained that anything above 240 hours is considered “use it or lose it” and is forfeited if the employee isn’t able to use it by the end of that year.
“Under our legislation, annual leave days that are forfeited by Department of Defense employees will be pooled, so employees who need extra time off for family or medical reasons can use additional leave hours to supplement their own,” Sen. Rounds said.
While employees are now allowed to donate a portion of their earned annual leave to specific colleagues who are experiencing a serious situation and need more time off, the senator’s office pointed out inefficiencies with the current system. For example, employees often have to relinquish their earned annual leave if they take another job outside the department.
Rounds said he would work to move his “common sense policy” forward in the U.S. Senate.