3/19/09: A key House committee yesterday marked up legislation containing provisions to improve the treatment of federal retirees covered under different retirement systems, a step applauded NTEU national President Colleen Kelley. The bill also contains other provisions addressing in positive ways matters important to the federal workforce.

The retirement provision in H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Bill, would permit those covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to get credit toward retirement for their unused sick leave. It would match a right already provided to those under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).

The bill would also add a Roth-style investment retirement option to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) and provide for automatic enrollment of new federal hires into the TSP.

In addition, an amendment was included to correct an anomaly in the law which penalized federal employees who choose part-time work at the end of their careers by not calculating their CSRS pensions correctly. This provision will help retain federal employees who choose to go part-time at the end of their careers.

Another NTEU-supported amendment to allow FERS employees to return to federal service and redeposit their annuities and receive credit for years served was included in the measure. This reflects the current workforce in which employees move in and out of jobs more frequently, and will serve to attract talented public servants.

“Each of these is a positive and important advance for current and prospective federal workers,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. The legislation will go to the House floor, where NTEU will press strongly for its approval.

In a letter to members of the committee earlier this month, the NTEU leader said these provisions are “long overdue” steps in “correcting shortcomings in current law by helping to attract and retain qualified federal employees, and making the retirement systems more viable.”
The FERS sick leave provision would fix a long-standing inequity, said President Kelley.

“Both FERS and CSRS employees work side-by-side every day, in dedicated service to the public,” Kelley said, “and both groups deserve to have their unused sick leave counted toward their retirement benefits.”
Companion legislation on the CSRS part-time work matter is pending in the Senate.

Under current law, those who retire under CSRS—that includes federal employees hired prior to 1984—and who have performed some part-time work often do not get full credit for all their full-time work in the calculation of their annuity.

The impact often is a disincentive for an employee to shift to a part-time schedule rather than retire—resulting in a loss to the agency of considerable expertise sooner than would otherwise have occurred.

“Those are important personnel losses that Congress can help agencies avoid,” President Kelley, “and that is especially important when you consider how valuable long-serving employees can be as mentors to newer members of an agency’s staff.”