President Signs Defense Bill: Includes Credit for Sick Leave and Abolishes NSPS

The President has signed into law a bill that expands the human resources benefits for federal employees.

We we noted in a recent article (Human Resources Changes Include Sick Leave Credit for FERS Employees and Abolishing NSPS), the Senate recently passed a bill that provides a number of benefits to federal employees. The bill was not a law at that time as it has not been signed by the President.

President Obama today signed the bill.

The new law will make several changes to the federal human resources system including:

  • Allowing federal agencies to re-employ federal retirees on a limited, part-time basis without offset of annuity;
  • Permitting Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) workers to initially credit half, and in 2014 all, of their unused sick leave toward retirement;
  • Providing for pay system changes that will alter the retirement system for federal employees in Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Territories;
  • Ending the Department of Defense’s pay-for-performance personnel system, the National Security Personnel System or NSPS, restoring employees to the federal General Schedule pay system;
  • Allowing former federal employees under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) who withdrew their contributions to the retirement trust fund, and waiving retirement credit for those years of service, to redeposit their earlier contributions, plus interest, upon reemployment with the federal government.

For federal employees under the FERS system who were anticipating getting credit for their unused sick leave upon retirement, take note that the new system will not take effect immediately. It will be phased in. This means that until December 31, 2013, employees would receive a credit of 50 percent for unused sick leave. After this date, they would receive full credit for their unused leave.

About the Author

Ralph Smith has several decades of experience working with federal human resources issues. He has written extensively on a full range of human resources topics in books and newsletters and is a co-founder of two companies and several newsletters on federal human resources. Follow Ralph on Twitter: @RalphSmith47