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NARFE Applauds Senate Introduction of Legislation ProvidingPaid Parental Leave for Federal Employees

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

Alexandria, VA – Richard G. Thissen, National President of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), applauded Senate introduction of the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act today and urged Congress to swiftly pass it. The bill, introduced by Sens. Brian Schatz, D-HI, Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, would provide six weeks of paid leave to federal employees for the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.

“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. “But enactment of this legislation is about more than competing with other countries; it’s about equipping the federal government to compete for top talent, particularly as we continue to face a retirement wave. With more than half of U.S. private-sector employers offering paid parental leave, 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. With only 7 percent of professional federal employees currently under age 30 and with more than 30 percent of the federal workforce eligible to retire in the next three years, the government must offer benefits comparable to those offered in the private sector,” Thissen continued.

“It’s long past time for the federal government to offer this benefit, particularly as more and more private-sector companies are learning that in doing so, they improve both employee morale and retention of good employees,” stated Thissen.

“I thank Sens. Schatz and Mikulski for their leadership on this issue,” Thissen said, “and NARFE urges Congress to support federal employees by affording them paid parental leave. This commonsense piece of legislation should be acted on swiftly.”

Companion legislation, H.R. 532, was introduced in the House by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, in January. It has 56 bipartisan cosponsors.

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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.