(a) Purpose: The purpose of the sick leave bank is to provide a means to pay any employee who must be absent from work because of prolonged personal illness, serious injury or non-elective surgery and has exhausted all paid leave otherwise available to the employee. In order to be eligible to participate in the sick leave bank, each employee must donate twenty-five (25) hours of accumulated sick leave each year. Only those employees who have donated to the bank shall be eligible to apply to receive hours from the bank. The annual donation shall be made in December each year and shall entitle the employee to participate in the sick leave bank during the succeeding calendar year. The application to participate shall be in writing and shall remain in effect from year to year, unless revoked by the employee in writing by no later than November 30 in any year. Notwithstanding the foregoing, for the year 2012, the application to participate in the sick leave bank shall be completed by January 31, 2012.
(b) Requirements: In order to be eligible to participate in the sick leave bank:
(1) Each employee shall have been a full-time, regular employee of the Village of Crestline for at least two (2) years and be a contributing employee to the sick leave bank.
(2) No employee shall be allowed to contribute to the sick leave bank if the contribution will reduce an employee's accumulated sick leave below one hundred (100) hours.
(3) In order to be eligible to withdraw hours from the sick leave bank:
A. The employee must have exhausted all paid leave available to the employee, including vacation, sick leave, personal leave, and compensatory time.
B. The reason for the absence must be a prolonged personal illness, serious injury or non-elective surgery.
C. The maximum amount of sick leave which will be provided to any employee on account of any one illness, serious injury, or non-elective surgery shall be four hundred eighty (480) hours.
D. An employee who seeks to withdraw hours from the sick leave bank shall apply in writing to the Village Administrator, or if the Village Administrator applies, to the Mayor. The application shall be accompanied by a physician's statement verifying the employee's need to be absent from work for an extended period of time.
E. The determination as to whether an employee shall be found to be eligible to receive paid leave from the sick leave bank shall be made by the Mayor, and that decision shall be final.
F. All hours contributed to the sick leave bank shall not be returnable to the employee and shall accumulate from year to year.
G. In the event there are insufficient hours in the sick leave bank, participating employees may contribute additional hours subject to the one hundred (100) hour limitation of subsection (b)(2).
H. An employee receiving sick leave hours from the bank shall be paid at his/her regular hourly rate, subject to all deductions, in the same manner as regularly accumulated sick leave.
I. In making the determination of whether an employee is eligible to draw hours from the sick leave bank, the Mayor shall determine eligibility based upon the unusual, severe, or emergency conditions facing the employee on a case-by-case basis. The employee's attendance record prior to the request for hours from the sick leave bank, for reasons other than the current basis for the request, may be considered.
J. The sick leave bank will not be available to employees whose illness, injury, or surgery is covered by Workers' Compensation.
(Ord. 2989. Passed.