Bipartisan measure would give wounded veterans more sick leave

Posted 2015-01-20 18:15 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

Wounded veterans hired by the federal government would start their jobs with a stockpile of paid sick leave under a bill introduced in Congress last week.

The bipartisan measure would give service-disabled veterans 104 hours of paid sick time after they enter the federal workforce; nonveteran employees begin with none and accrue hours over time.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a joint statement with other House supporters that new veteran hires, many of whom return from multiple tours of duty with post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues, often start their jobs without paid leave for medical appointments to treat their service-related disabilities.

“It is unacceptable that our wounded warrior federal employees who are just starting out in the federal workforce are often faced with the difficult choice of having to take unpaid leave to attend their VA appointments or miss their medical visits,” Lynch said.

Six other members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation: Democratic Reps. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland; Republican Reps. Blake Farenthold of Texas and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina; and Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C.

Sens. Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, and Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, plan to introduce companion legislation in the Senate soon, according to the statement.

The Federal Managers Association backed the proposal. Its president, Patricia Niehaus, said in a statement that agency supervisors “have seen firsthand the stress these new employees face as they struggle with their disability on top of the demands of their jobs.”

Niehaus added that “it is only right that the federal government provides this much-needed leave” for wounded veterans who served their country on and off the battlefield.

The House bill would apply to former troops who qualify as 30 percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs and are in their first year of work with a federal agency. To qualify for the early sick leave, they would have to submit certification to their agency.

The legislation would also allow veterans to carry over any of the 104 hours they do not use in a given year.

“These men and women have made incredible sacrifices to defend our freedom and have been wounded as a result,” Jones said in the statement. “They deserve an adequate amount of time to tend to their wounds while beginning a new chapter in their careers after they leave the military.”

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Source: Stripes