FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2019
September 26, 2019
Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
[email protected]
AFGE Urges Senate to Prioritize Federal Employee Jobs and Paid Family Leave in FY 2020 NDAA
Categories:
Congress, Budget
House-passed provision to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for federal employees is first step in effort to extend family leave to all American workers
WASHINGTON – Last night, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii led a vote instructing the Senate to include federal employee paid family leave in the final FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. This non-binding vote failed by 47-48 with strong support among Senate Democrats and four Senate Republicans.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, urges the Senate to include federal employee paid family leave in the final FY 2020 NDAA. This would be a crucial first step in an effort to extend family leave to all American workers.
AFGE National President J. David Cox Sr. today issued the following statement:
“Federal employees currently receive no paid time off for the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child, or to address other family medical emergencies. This forces workers to use up their own sick or annual leave, take off time without pay, or return to work earlier than advised. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not offer is citizens paid family leave.
“Providing paid family leave to federal employees is a logical first step that will help build support for extending this benefit to all American workers and their families, and we encourage the Senate to make Federal Employee Paid Family Leave a priority as they finalize the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
“We also strongly support other important workplace protections in the final NDAA, including prohibiting the transfer of the functions of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget and repealing civilian personnel caps in the Department of Defense, and urge the inclusion of these provisions in the final FY2020 NDAA.”
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