Emergency Paid Leave Not Yet Available At SSA
From
Federal News Network:
Employees at the Social Security Administration say the agency hasn’t
yet made emergency paid sick leave available to them, despite a
congressionally-mandated implementation date and assurances from its
payroll provider that its customers can, in fact, access these new
benefits.
Under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA), all federal employees are eligible
for up to 80 hours of emergency paid sick leave if they meet certain
coronavirus-related circumstances. Congress included emergency paid sick
leave in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which the
president signed into law March 18.
Under the law, employees had access to the emergency paid sick leave
starting April 1, and the benefits are available through Dec. 31, 2020.
But SSA employees and the unions that represent them say the agency
hasn’t explained when they’ll be able to formally request and use
emergency paid sick leave benefits under the new law.
“We are working with our payroll provider on implementation of this new
legislation and the associated leave balance,” an SSA spokesman wrote in
an email to Federal News Network. “In the meantime, employees may
continue to take personal leave or request advanced leave when
necessary. Additionally, the leave from this legislation may be applied
retroactively or used for future needs.” ...
Not only have they not implemented it yet, but they haven't even told SSA employees (I am a SSA employee) that it will be available. Communications from HR are basically non-existent.
ReplyDeleteJust saying, if you run have out of sick leave getting 6+ hours every pay period... good luck beating COVID with the poor health you must have.
ReplyDelete@ 8:03 p.m. Those two extra weeks of sick time to "cash out" upon retirement will add an $30-$50/year to your pension. Chump change? Yeah, but I am not in the business of refusing extra inflation-protected retirement income. How about you?
ReplyDeleteEmployees don't get 6 hours per pay period. They do get 4 hours. Those in poor health may have used a good amount of that.
ReplyDeleteleave per pay period (2 weeks). Everyone gets 4 hours sick. Employees with up to 3 years service get 4 hours annual leave. Employees with 3-15 years service get 6 hours annual. Employees with 15+ years service get 8 annual.
ReplyDeleteso, employees get a minimum of 8 hours leave and maximum of 12 hours leave every 2 weeks.
Yes, there are MANY employees that burn through that (and more) every year and are consistently negative with leave balance. Yes, federal employment is nice.
Also, the 80 hours referred to in this article is for people diagnosed with COVID-19...not just regular sick leave. There are probably no more than a handful of employees that this would apply to.
So we are waiting for updates to our system Bc if I’m not mistaken the rate at which the employee receives this pay is 3/4 regular pay. That’s been difficult for our webta system to incorporate. That being said employees can use this leave now - we will substitute with sick leave now and amend later. The posts are correct however in that it hasn’t widely been advertised
ReplyDelete@ 2:20 lol @ "handful"...if our "big boss" has his way, the vast majority of the SSA workforce will contract COVID-19. They better get this sorted out before they reopen the field offices to the public. Otherwise, this will be a HUUUUGE headache for HR.
ReplyDelete