Federal Managers Association

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• FMA AND COALITION PARTNERS SEND LETTER TO CONGRESS ON COVID-19 ISSUES - April 15, 2020
• On Tuesday, April 14, the Federal Managers Association (FMA) and 27 other organizations within the Federal-Postal Coalition sent a letter to all Members of Congress to highlight challenges facing the federal and postal community related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and urge congressional support on those issues. 
  
  
  Issues included in the letter are:
  
  
  • Adequate funding for and supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline and essential federal and postal workers;

  • Hazard premium pay for essential frontline and public-facing federal and postal workers;

  • Presumptive workers compensation for federal employees infected with COVID-19 who are engaged in occupations with increased risk;

  • Expanding “Families First” Act emergency sick leave and family leave provisions to all federal employees;

  • Granting weather and safety leave to all employees who are not able to perform their duties remotely and who cannot travel to their duty station because of health and safety risks as a result of the coronavirus crisis and to authorize the use of weather and safety leave to cover childcare and other dependent care responsibilities arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;

  • Expanding telework programs to help slow the spread of the coronavirus and ensure that agencies are prepared for continuation of operations in the future;

  • Requiring coverage of telehealth services, where practicable, by Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plans;

  • Amending current law to allow for a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 crisis to be considered as a “qualifying life event,” giving federal and postal employees who are not currently enrolled in a FEHB program health plan the opportunity for health care coverage, as well as allow for enrollment changes; and

  • Emergency appropriations and debt cancellation for the United States Postal Service (USPS).
  
  
  
  
  To read the full letter, please click here.
  

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