The American Rescue Plan went into effect on March 11th. Included in the plan are several provisions designed to help federal employees.
There is funding available for the agency to grant admin time for people in the following issues:
1) Being advised to quarantine by a medical professional or a local government
2) Caring for someone who has been advised to quarantine
3) Experiencing covid symptoms and waiting on a covid test
4) caring for your child if their school or place of care has been closed, or if virtual learning is required, optional, or hybrid.
5) caring for a family member with a mental or physical disability or who is 55 or older and incapable of self care, if their regular care provider is unavailable due to covid.
6) obtaining a vaccine or recovering from any injury or condition as a result of getting the vaccine.
We are being told that there is no guidance for how this will work, so no one is being allowed to take admin time for most of these situations. It has been over a month, so our view is there should definitely be guidance by now. Because the guidance isn’t out, we don’t know what the rules will be or how strict management will be regarding proving you’re in a situation where you need the leave. That’s why we really need the guidance.
If you feel you are being harmed by the slow roll out of this new leave, we want to try to help. Please send an email to nteu.chapter.66@irs.gov with the subject line “covid leave”.
Tell us your name, why you think you qualify for the new covid leave, your manager’s name, and your department.
But, before you do that, ask your manager if the covid leave is available and tell us their answer to that question.
This is a disaster and many people are being harmed, so we are dedicated to figuring out how to resolve this as quickly as possible.
NTEU Chapter 66 