The last day of mail count is finally over my shoulder. More about that in another post. First,
On Friday, March 13, 2009, Ralph Smith, CEO of FedSmith, Inc., a newsletter concerning issues of Federal Employees, wrote an article entitled, “Tobacco, the Thrift Savings Plan and FERS: What Is the Link Between Them?”
In this article, he wrote that HR 1256 was reintroduced on March 3rd with 143 co-sponsors. The bill entitled “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” has Title IV Sec. 407 stuck on the very end. Title IV has wording about changes to the Thrift Savings Plan. Sec. 407 specifically addresses unused sick leave.
This is quoting Ralph Smith:
“First, the credit for unused sick leave. Similar legislation was passed by the House last year but it was never enacted into law. The language in the new bill is similar. The language in the current bill reads:
"...in computing an annuity under this subchapter, the total service of an employee who retires on an immediate annuity or who dies leaving a survivor or survivors entitled to annuity includes the days of unused sick leave to his credit under a formal leave system, except that these days will not be counted in determining average pay or annuity eligibility under this subchapter."
In plain English, this means that federal employees who are under the FERS system would count their unused sick leave toward the computation of their retirement annuity in the same manner as employees under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS).”
This is extremely important legislation for someone like me who has a full year of sick leave and retirement plans.
