Last week, FreeFrom was thrilled to see the Biden-Harris Administration issue guidance on supporting access to safe leave for survivors who are federal employees. Although this guidance does not establish a new paid and protected safe leave program, it is a major step in the right direction.
The policy changes largely reflect our own model policy, including the ability to take time off to deal with the consequences of abuse for a wide variety of reasons. We were also glad to see the explicit statement that the agency will not require the employee to contact law enforcement in order to access this leave.
The federal government is our country’s largest employer and can set the standard for what are considered quality benefits employers provide. There are approximately 2.2 million employees who will benefit from this policy change.
Last year, FreeFrom presented the preliminary findings of our survey of 2,500+ survivors nationwide about what support they need from their employers to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – the federal government’s HR department which issued this new guidance.
Our goal for collecting this data is to use it to encourage more employers to take action to better support the survivors on their staff.
A third of survivors in our network report that their harm-doer caused them to lose their job. So we know employers have an important role to play in ensuring survivors have the support they need to stay in their jobs and strengthen their financial security.
Learn more about the new safe leave policy for federal employees here.
