Evening star., 1920-01-23
CONSIDERS CUT IN
SICK LEAVE FROM
50 To 10 DAYS
Redistribution Commits.
sion's Plan Would Make
Allowance Cumulative.

Reduction of annual sick leave
here from thirty to ten days, with a
plan for cumulative sick leave year
after year for those who do not take
any or all of their sick leave, is un-
der consideration by the joint con-
gressional commission on reclassi-
fication of salaries in the District.
Cumulative sick leave would fur
nish each federal employe with a
paramount reason for conserving all
the sick leave he could, so that he
might have sort of sick leave
bank account" to draw upon in case
he should be taken seriously ill at
any time.
Could GBank" Unused Days.
Under the proposed plan a maxi
a year would be esta blished. with the
privilege of banking" all days not
taken. Thus an employe who had
perfect health and was never absent
on account of i'll health would bogir
the new year with ten days sick
leave coming to him.
AT the end of the second year ne
would have twenty days sick leave
to his account: thirty days at the end
of the third year; forty days at the
end of the fourth year. and so on
until the maximum account Nhlch
would be allowed was reached; civ
Under proposed plans probably SIX
ty days would be the. maximum
amount which any employe might
accumulate. After that time his ac-
count would stand at sixty days for
him to draw on. Any employe VINO
have six days to his credit IN the
'.sick leave bank account.
Average Only Seven Days
Reduction of the annual sick leave
privilege from thirty days to ten days
has been proposed on account OF the
finding by the commission that the
average sick leave taken by the gov
ernment employe here is only seven
days. The average annual and sick
leave together is about thirty-three
days.
The whole plan would be safeguard
ed. under the scheme being considered
by the commission, by system or
of the United States public health
service. Already one government bu-
reau, it is stated, has in operation
system whereby nurse is sent imme-
diately to the home of any employe
reported i'll.
This nurse has two main functions:
To render all the aid possible to the
employe and to make certain that the
one reporting i'll is really in that state.
Cases have been known in the gov
ernment service. it is asserted, where
persons telephoning in that they were
i'll were mot at home" when the nurse
called. A.
VIII Act Cautiously.
Every precaution will be taken by
the Redistribution commission in
whatever it may ultimately adopt
concerning sick leave privileges. TO
safeguard the interests Of the en-
ploye who is genuinely i'll. The great
difficulty of the whole problem is to
do Justice to the. bona fide i'll person
and at the same time prevent the
abuse of the sick leave privilege.
1t is realized that if the annual sick
leave is cut to ten days u year the
first year the employe who has but
ten days sick leave might find him
self in hard straights if taken i'll with
influenza which kept him in bed for
four weeks.
Definite assurance was made today
that under any plans finally adopted
the worthy employe will not be left to
suffer Some system will be worked
out whereby an i'll person whose sick
leave bank account" Is not as yet
large may be taken care of
The great merit of the proposed
plan, it is contended, is that it would
give each employe of the government
a personal. selfish reason for boarding
DAYS of sick leave and make it to the
interest of each emp1oye to be as
healthy as possible.