IRS and SSA suspend advanced leave for employees; union says move hurts low-wage workers

Employees at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA)—both agencies led by the same official—can no longer access advanced annual leave or sick leave that they have not yet accrued.

Background on Advanced Leave

Federal employees have traditionally been permitted to use "advanced" annual or sick leave for several reasons, including:

• Major medical emergencies
• Family care
• Bereavement of an immediate family member

This option was available to employees who had already exhausted their accrued annual or sick leave. With advanced leave, employees essentially borrow from a reserve of leave hours they will eventually earn.

Policy Change Announced

Human resources officials informed IRS and SSA employees last Friday that both agencies will no longer grant advanced annual leave or advanced sick leave until further notice.

In nearly identical emails, the IRS and SSA told employees that this policy change is intended to ensure both agencies provide a high level of customer service to the public and to address individual cases where employees took excessive amounts of advanced leave.

"Just spent the last two hours talking to employees impacted," an SSA official told Government Executive last Friday, as the email reached employees' inboxes. "It's going to be hard on those employees who already have negative leave balances."

Impact on Pending Requests and Alternatives

• All pending requests for advanced leave at both agencies will be denied.
• Employees can still donate unused annual leave to coworkers through the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program.
• Employees may also take unpaid leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• The changes have no impact on an employee's ability to use already-accrued annual and sick leave.

Leadership Context

Both agencies are led by Frank Bisignano, the Senate-confirmed SSA commissioner and the first chief executive officer of the IRS. Speaking at an industry conference last month, Bisignano compared leading both agencies to "running a large company."

"If you think about these two organizations, I view them as businesses—the business of collecting taxes and administering and upholding the law on taxes, and the business of paying out Social Security payments," Bisignano said at the Government Service Delivery summit.

Rationale for Suspension

The IRS and SSA told staff that the suspension will remain in effect pending efforts to reduce "existing significant advanced leave balances." Both agencies noted that in several cases, employees are unlikely to earn back the large amounts of advanced leave hours they have already used.

"This is debt carried against the future work of all our employees, work that has not yet occurred, and work the public expects us to deliver. This constrains our ability to invest in the people, tools, and resources our mission requires," both emails stated.

SSA told employees that "the American people depend on SSA to deliver on its mission every day, and that mission depends on a workforce that is present and performing the public service they rely on us for."

"Advanced leave, which is leave granted before it is earned, means employees are compensated for time away from our mission before the work has been done," SSA wrote. "The cumulative effect over the years of this policy is significant and unsustainable and impacts our service to the public."

Union Response

AFGE Council 220 President Jessica LaPointe, whose union represents field office and teleservice center employees, said advanced leave functions as a sort of short-term or long-term disability insurance program for federal employees.

"We have workers going through cancer treatment. We have workers that have been the victim of car accidents, unexpected emergencies. We have caregivers of sick children, sick parents, elderly parents. We have been able to use this—not abuse it—to supplement our low wages. And now that we don't have it, federal workers that are administering disability and retirement benefits are being forced to not get paid when disaster strikes," LaPointe said.

Employee Financial Challenges

A report from the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a research partner for AFGE, found that 54% of the 36,000 frontline SSA employees represented by the union were paid less than a living wage for their geographic region. A living wage is defined as the minimum income needed for an individual to afford the minimum standard of living in their community.

In a survey of more than 800 current SSA employees:

• 17% of respondents with over 20 years on the job told SOC they are working a second job.
• Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents said they were struggling to provide at least one necessity for their families.

"We have workers at this agency that don't make a living wage, that can't pay their bills," LaPointe said. "If we go into leave without pay and can't pay our bills, can't pay our health insurance premiums, can't pay for food, rent, all those things, that stresses you out. And when you're stressed, and you have a preexisting condition, it gets worse and so you have more leave without pay."