Because they are all under the FERS retirement system, we dubbed it the FERS flu.

Early this year it appeared Congress had found a way to save money, make government more efficient and give feds what many thought to be a long-overdue perk: Allowing FERS employees to credit their unused sick leave toward retirement service time.

The idea was that giving them the incentive to save sick leave would reduce or eliminate the so-called FERS flu. That's an affliction that strikes many FERS employees in their last year of service when many under the use-it-or-lose-it system begin to burn up accumulated sick leave.

But now the plan to give FERS employees incentives to save their sick leave appears to be a dead duck. Congress will take it up next week are part of the much-larger, must-pass Defense Authorization Act.

So what happened?

Congressional sources say that after rechecking the numbers, the Obama administration decided that extending the sick leave credit to FERS employees (who make up 80 percent of the workforce) would cost much more than it would save. Bottom line: It is not supporting the change meaning it will probably be eliminated from the Defense money bill in conference.

Backers of the sick leave credit plan to cure the FERS flu said apparent abuse of the system in the last year of service by some employees cost Uncle Sam $69 million a year in lost productivity. But upon closer examination, Capitol Hill sources say, it was determined that the $69 million per year cost covered all sick leave taken by FERS employees rather than whatever portion of leave is taken because of the FERS flu.

The House version of the giant Defense money has a number of pro-fed, pro-retiree provisions. One of them would give workers under the FERS retirement plan the same save-your-sick-leave incentive that's long been available to workers under the older CSRS retirement plan.

Once CSRS employees otherwise meet age and service requirements to retire they can tack on any unused sick leave they have to their total service time. Each year of unused sick leave (about 2080 hours) boosts the CSRS employees annuity about 2 percent. Giving FERS workers (whose annuities are figured under a less generous formula) the same perk would boost their annuities about 1 percent for each year of unused sick leave.

Groups favoring the FERS flu cure, which represent both rank-and-file workers, supervisors and executives, citied the cost savings to the government (taxpayers) and a smoother work flow. But insiders say the huge savings originally cited ($69 million per year) were inflated and that the cost of boosting FERS annuities over a lifetime of retirement would far out-weigh any savings.

Bottom line: The FERS flu "cure" isn't likely to be approved this year. For a lineup of what else is in the House and Senate versions of the Defense Act, which will be taken up next week, click here:

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Emily Jarvis

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com