Catastrophic Sick Leave Policy Proposal
Current annual leave policy allows a maximum accumulation of 20 days
for employees with less than 15 years service and 30 days for those whose
service exceeds 15 years; the employee forfeits any accumulation of annual
leave days beyond these limits.
Current sick leave policy allows a maximum accumulation of 90 days for
all employees with any excess forfeited.
Under the proposed Catastrophic Sick Leave Policy annual and sick leave
days that would otherwise be forfeited go instead to the Catastrophic Sick
Leave bank.
The maximum accrual for the catastrophic leave bank is 120 days.
Employees must exhaust all of their accrued paid leave balances and
compensatory time before they can be paid from the catastrophic leave bank.
The employee must present medical certification to the HR Director to
receive benefits from their catastrophic leave bank.
A catastrophic illness or injury is usually life threatening and may
leave significant residual disability or involve lengthy recovery and/or
rehabilitation periods, and is expected to incapacitate the employee for an
extended period of time or required the employee to receive care from a hospice
or similar palliative care provider. Examples of illness or injury that
qualifies for Catastrophic Sick Leave include heart attacks, heart conditions
requiring heart bypass or valve operations, congestive heart failure, most
cancers, back conditions requiring extensive therapy or surgical procedures,
strokes, severe respiratory conditions, spinal injuries, emphysema, severe
arthritis, severe nervous disorders, and injuries caused by serious accidents.
If the Human Resources Director determines that the injury or illness
does not qualify for catastrophic sick leave benefits the employee may appeal
to the City Manager. The decision of the City Manager is final.
When employees are paid from their catastrophic sick leave bank their
department is relieved of the payroll charge and may hire a temporary
replacement for the employee on catastrophic leave.
Balances held in the catastrophic sick leave bank shall be treated the
same as sick leave for incidents involving leave of absence, separation,
reinstatement and reemployment
Statistics and Examples
3/31/2009 11/1/2009 11/1/2010
# Employees with 90 days sick leave assuming no usage until effective date. 523 620 752
# Employees with 30 days vacation leave. 426 N/A N/A
1. Employee #1 is a new employee. If this employee has perfect attendance for
the first 9 years of employment then 5.25 days of sick leave would go into the
employees Catastrophic Sick Leave Bank at the end of the 9th year of
employment. If the employee continued to have perfect attendance the maximum
accrual of 120 days of catastrophic sick leave would occur during the 21st year
of employment.
2. Employee #2 is another new employee. If this employee uses an average of 3
days sick leave per year then 7.5 days of sick leave would go into the
employees Catastrophic Sick Leave Bank at the end of the 12th year of
employment. If the attendance trend continues the maximum accrual of 120 days
of catastrophic sick leave would occur during the 27th year of employment.
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