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NARFE Applauds Steps Toward Paid Parental Leave, But More Needs to be Done

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Contact: Jessica Klement
January 15, 2015 703-838-7760
  jklement@narfe.org

Alexandria, VA – The White House today has announced that President Obama intends to sign a Presidential Memorandum directing federal agencies to advance up to six weeks of paid sick leave for federal employees with a new child. Richard G. Thissen, president of the National Active and Retirees Federal Employees Association (NARFE), expressed the organization’s support for the proposal.

“Embarrassingly, America is the only industrialized nation whose civil service employees do not receive a single week of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child,” Thissen said.

“More and more private employers around the world are offering parents paid time off so they can take care of their newborns. As a result, federal agencies can’t compete with the private sector for talented younger workers who, if electing federal employment, would have to use accrued vacation or sick time, which may be only a few days, or forgo pay in order to take time off after the birth of a child,” Thissen continued.

“This is an even larger problem for federal agencies facing a substantial retirement wave. With more than 30 percent of the federal workforce eligible to retire in the next three years, the federal government must offer comparable benefits to compete with the private sector for top talent,” Thissen went on to say.

“While the President’s proposal is a good start, NARFE urges Congress to take it a step further by passing legislation that will support America’s workers and strengthen the federal workforce by affording them paid parental leave. Rep. Carolyn Maloney has, in previous years, introduced legislation that would give federal workers paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child. According to the Congressional Budget Office, passage of this legislation would not increase the federal budget deficit. This commonsense piece of legislation should be acted on swiftly to codify paid parental leave into law,” Thissen concluded.

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The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE) one of America’s oldest and largest associations, was founded in 1921 with the mission of protecting the earned rights and benefits of America’s active and retired federal workers. The largest federal employee/retiree organization, NARFE represents the interests of nearly five million current and future federal annuitants, spouses and survivors.