(a) Any classified employee not represented by a recognized bargaining unit or employed by the Board of Hospital Managers, who has accumulated 365 service credits, and is eligible to accrue sick leave, who has been absent from work for 28 consecutive calendar days and is unable to work due to health reasons not related to his or her job, shall be eligible for sick leave benefits as herein provided. An employee who enters a residential rehabilitation program shall be eligible for sick leave benefits after 28 consecutive calendar days absence. An employee who does not complete the rehabilitation program must reimburse the City for those days either in cash or through reduction of the employee’s accrued annual and/or sick leave, if any, or by reducing the accrual by one-half of the normal accrual until the City is reimbursed.
(b) Written application for sick leave benefits, on forms provided by the City, shall be filed with the Personnel Department and shall be accompanied by a written statement from the employee’s physician which shall include the doctor’s diagnosis and anticipated period of absence. The City may require the employee to submit to a medical examination at City expense, prior to authorizing payment of leave benefits, or at any time during any leave granted. Upon receipt of such satisfactory information, the employee will be placed on sick leave with benefits for a period not to exceed 26 payroll periods.
(c) Payments during this period shall be at the rate of 75% of the employee’s straight time hourly rate, excluding premium pay, and shall include only those days the employee would have been paid but was unable to work due to his or her health.
(d) When an employee has exhausted all available sick leave insurance benefits, but is unable to work due to health reasons, upon making proper application therefor, the employee shall use his or her accrued sick and annual leave prior to being eligible to be placed on extended sick leave as outlined in § 35-88A.2.
(e) At the conclusion of a residential rehabilitation program, any employee receiving sick leave benefits must undergo a physical examination conducted by the City health clinic within two weeks of the end of the program. In the event the employee fails the examination for a residential rehabilitation program, sick leave benefits will be terminated unless the employee immediately reenters a new residential rehabilitation program. Sick leave benefits shall terminate two weeks after the end of the second program, even if the employee still is unable to pass a physical examination conducted by the City health clinic.
(f) An employee will be eligible for sick leave insurance benefits not more than two times in any five-year period.
(g) The waiting period for all employees shall be 28 calendar days.
(Ord. 3229, passed 2-22-1993; Ord. 3279, passed 6-13-1994)