157.11 SICK LEAVE; FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES.

   (a)   Each full-time employee of the Municipality, including the Police Chief, for whom no separate provision is made by other ordinance shall be entitled to sick leave of four and six-tenths hours for each completed eighty hours of service. Sick leave shall not be counted towards completed hours of service under this section or any other section of the Codified Ordinances pertaining to sick leave. Vacations and holidays shall be counted towards completed hours of service. Employees may use sick leave, upon approval of the responsible administrative officer, for absence due to illness, injury, exposure to a contagious disease which could be communicated to other employees, and illness or death in the employee’s immediate family. Unused sick leave shall be cumulative without limit for sick leave purposes. The previously accumulated sick leave of an employee who has been separated from the public service of the Municipality may be placed to his credit upon his re-employment by the City, upon approval by the Mayor.

(Ord. 2004-180. Passed 12-7-04.)

      (1)   Employees may use accumulated sick leave, if they so choose, for absence occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency orders issued by the federal government and/or state government such as the “Stay at Home” order issued by the State of Ohio on March 9, 2020. After April 1, 2020, employees may use up to eighty hours of accumulated sick time under this subsection during the duration of the emergency orders issued by the state and federal governments, subject to the approval by the Mayor for administrative employees and by the Council President for Council employees. The use of the eighty hours of accumulated sick time cited above does not include the emergency sick time provided by the federal government pursuant to the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)”. Employee use of accumulated sick time related to the COVID-19 pandemic before April 1, 2020 is hereby authorized and ratified.

         (Ord. 2020-031. Passed 4-21-20.)

   (b)   For the purposes of this section, the words “immediate family” shall be construed to mean and be limited to the parents, spouse, children, brothers and sisters, grandparents, mother-in-law or father-in-law of the employee.

   (c)   When sick leave is used, it shall be deducted from employee’s credit on the basis of one hour for every one hour of absence from previously scheduled work.

   (d)   The Mayor or other responsible administrative officer shall require the employee to furnish a qualified affidavit that his absence was caused by illness due to any of the causes mentioned in this section, if such absence was in excess of three days, or for a lesser period of time, if the Mayor or such officer feels that such affidavit is necessary to prevent abuse of the provisions of this section.

   (e)   The City reserves the right to require each employee applying for sick leave to be examined by a doctor named by the City to ascertain the nature and extent of illness claimed.

   (f)   Effective January 1, 1998, each employee of the City, including the Police Chief, with ten or more years of service at the time of separation (i.e., retirement, layoff, death, dismissal or resignation) shall receive pay for unused sick leave based upon his or her rate of pay at the time of separation for one-half of his or her accrued but unused sick leave, unless otherwise provided by any other section of the Codified Ordinances. Such payment shall be made only once to any employee upon separation.

   (g)   Effective January 1, 1998, for the purposes of such payment, unused sick leave shall be cumulative without limit unless otherwise provided by any other section of the Codified Ordinances.

   (h)   For purposes of compensation under this provision, hourly rate of pay shall be defined as an employee’s actual base rate excluding all other wage tied benefits.

   (i)   Effective from and after June 1, 2003, it is the policy of the City of Bedford Heights that sick leave is personal to each employee and shall not be allowed to be transferred to or from full-time employees or permanent part-time employees to any other employee, and that such sick leave credits as earned by each employee may only be used for the purposes set forth in Section 157.11(a).
(Ord. 2004-180. Passed 12-7-04.)