3.66 – Sick Leave and Usage
A. Purpose
To establish the college’s standards for providing sick leave and allowable sick leave usage for full-time employees. Additionally, to establish standards for the administration of the college’s sick leave bank.
B. Policy
The college provides full-time employees with paid sick leave. Employees may use accrued sick leave balances in accordance with college procedures. Additionally, the college has established a sick leave bank that is available for full-time employees to utilize in certain instances to provide them income when they must be absent from work due to a catastrophic or life-threatening illness or injury, and they have no accumulated sick or vacation leave balances available to use.
C. Procedures
Accrual of Sick Leave
Each full-time employee will accumulate sick leave available for use at the rate of 14 hours (1.75 days) per month worked to the maximum of 1,520 hours (190 days) for 9-month employees, 1,680 hours (210 days) for 10-month employees, 1,840 hours (230 days) for 11-month employees, and 2,016 hours (252 days) for 12-month employees.
Employees who begin work on or before the 15th day of a calendar month will earn sick leave for that month. Employees who begin work after the 15th day of the month will start accruing sick leave in the month following their first day of work.
Full-time employees will not accrue sick leave for a calendar month if they are absent from work 80 hours or more during that month and they have used 80 hours or more of their accrued sick leave balance during that month.
Employees who terminate employment or retire from the college will earn sick leave in the month of termination/retirement provided that the employee’s last day of work is on the 15th or later in the termination/retirement month. Employees will not earn any hours of sick leave if their last day of work is prior to the 15th day of the month in which they terminate/retire.
Upon termination of employment or retirement, the college shall pay employees fifteen dollars ($15) for every eight (8) hours of unused accumulated sick leave that exceeds 800 hours (100 days).
Use of Sick Leave
A full-time employee may request to use sick leave for the following reasons:
- Illness or injury which prevents the employee from performing their usual duties.
- The actual period of temporary disability connected with the birth of a child and recovery therefrom.
- Medical appointments (e.g., appointments for unexpected illness or injury, annual exams, regularly scheduled wellness exams and dentist appointments).
- Illness or injury of the employee’s immediate family member. For this purpose immediate family member is defined as spouse, parents (including in-laws), children (including foster and step), and grandchildren.
- Bereavement time off that exceeds the leave provided under the college’s bereavement leave policy and procedures (3.17 – Bereavement Leave) due to the death of a member of the employee’s immediate family. For bereavement purposes, immediate family is defined as spouse, parents, children, brother, sister, grandparent and grandchildren (including foster, step, and in-law relationships). An employee may use up to 80 hours (10 days) of their accumulated sick leave for bereavement per fiscal year.
- Personal time off up to 16 hours (2 days) per fiscal year. Personal time off is an absence from the workplace due to reasons not covered by other leave options.
It is expected that an employee will only use sick leave for the purposes described above. Misuse of sick leave may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination. If misuse is suspected, the college may require the employee to provide documentation validating the need for sick leave.
Requests for sick leave should be made to an employee’s immediate supervisor as soon as is reasonably possible under the circumstances. When an employee’s absence is due to illness or injury not covered by Worker’s Compensation, notice should be provided no later than 30 minutes before the start of the employee’s designated shift. When an employee’s absence is due to bereavement or personal time off, the absence from work and use of accumulated sick leave hours should be approved by the appropriate supervisor in advance.
Sick Leave Bank
The college has established a sick leave bank for the purpose of providing income for employees when they must be absent from work due to catastrophic or life-threatening illnesses or injuries and they have no accumulated sick or vacation leave balances available to use.
At the beginning of each fiscal year, 2,000 hours of sick leave will be available from the sick leave bank. The sick leave bank may be discontinued at any time at the Chancellor’s discretion.
Full-time employees may apply for hours from the sick leave bank if they must be absent from work due to a catastrophic or life-threatening illness or injury affecting themselves or an immediate family member. Complications related to pregnancy may be covered, but normal pregnancy is not covered. For this purpose immediate family member is defined as spouse, parents (including in-laws), children (including foster and step), and grandchildren.
The employee must have first exhausted all of their accumulated sick leave and vacation leave hours before they are eligible to apply for hours from the sick leave bank.
An employee must submit an application for hours from the sick leave bank to the Office of Human Resources. The application must include a statement from the employee and a statement from the employee’s physician indicating that an extended leave is medically necessary. No medical records or description of medical condition shall be required. After reviewing the application and determining all required information has been submitted, the College Director of Human Resource shall submit the application to the Chancellor, who will make a final decision concerning approval or disapproval of the application.
An employee may initially apply for a maximum of up to 240 hours from the Sick Leave Bank per fiscal year. If needed, the employee may apply for additional sick bank hours by completing another application. Approval is contingent upon availability of sick leave bank hours and approval by the Chancellor.
D. Definitions
N/A
E. Authority
This policy and these procedures are maintained under the authority of the College Director of Human Resources.
F. Related Policies
3.25 – Employee Attendance, Absences, and Recording Time
3.68 – Bereavement Leave Policy
3.70 – Family Medical Leave Act Policy
G. Implementation
Policy approved and adopted by the Board of Trustees on 1/1/1994; revised on 2/23/1998, 8/14/2006, 5/19/2008, 11/11/2019, and 2/10/2020.
Purpose, Procedures, Definitions, Authority and Related Policies approved and adopted by the Chancellor’s Cabinet on 5/19/2008, and 1/14/2020
Set for review in fiscal year 2022-2023