151.07 SICK LEAVE.

   (a)   Sick leave shall be defined as an absence with pay necessitated by:

      (1)    Illness or injury to the employee;

      (2)    Exposure by the employee to a contagious disease communicable to other employees; or

      (3)   Illness, injury, or death in the employee's immediate family.

   (b)    All full-time employees shall earn sick leave at the rate of four and six-tenths (4.6) hours for every eighty (80) hour base pay period submitted and approved, and may accumulate such sick leave to an unlimited amount.

   (c)   Employees covered under this section shall notify the employer of such absence and the reason therefore no later than one (1) hour after the start of the work day for which the employee is scheduled to report with the exception of safety personnel who shall report by their respective departmental rules and regulations. Before an absence may be charged against accumulated sick leave, the affected employee's department head, or Mayor in the case of a department head, may require proof of illness, injury, or death in the family as may be satisfactory to him, or may require the employee to be examined by a physician designated by and paid for by the employer. In any event, an employee absent for more than two (2) work days must supply a physician's report to be eligible for paid sick leave, if requested by that employee's department head.

   (d)    If the employee fails to submit adequate proof of illness, injury, or death in the family, or in the event that upon such proof as is submitted or upon the request of medical examination, the department head finds there is not satisfactory evidence of illness, or death in the he family sufficient to justify the employee's absence, such leave may be considered an unauthorized absence and shall be without pay.

   (e)   Any abuse or patterned use of sick leave shall be just and sufficient cause for disciplinary action.

   (f)    The department head may require an employee who has been absent due to a personal illness or injury, prior to and as a condition of return to work, to be examined by a physician designated and paid for by the employer, to establish that such employee is not disabled from the performance of his duties and that his or her return to work will not jeopardize the health and safety of other employees.

   (g)    When the use of sick leave is due to illness or injury in the "immediate family", "immediate family" shall be defined to only include the employee's spouse, children, step-children, parents and step-parents. When the use of sick leave is due to death in the immediate family, the "immediate family" shall be defined as set fotth in the Funeral Leave Atticle.

   (h)    Upon the retirement or the death of an employee of an employee from the City who has less than ten (10) years of service with the City of Highland Heights, the State, any political subdivisions, or any combination thereof, and who has qualified for retirement benefits from a State of Ohio pension system, such employee shall be entitled to receive a cash payment equal to his or her hourly rate of pay based on 2080 hours per year at the time of retirement or death from the City, multiplied by one-fourth (1/4) the total number of accumulated but unused sick leave hours earned by the employee, as certified by the Director of Finance, provided that such resulting number of hours to be paid shall not exceed two hundred forty (240) hours.

   Upon retirement or the death of an employee from the City who has not less than ten (10) years of continuous full-time employment with the City of Highland Heights, the State, any political subdivisions, or any combination thereof, and who has qualified for retirement benefits from the State of Ohio pension system, such employee shall be entitled to receive a cash payment equal to his or her hourly rate of pay based on 2080 hours per year at the time of retirement or death from the City multiplied by one-half (1/2) the total number of accumulated but unused sick leave hours earned by the employee, as certified by the Director of Finance, provided that such resulting number of hours to be paid shall not exceed nine hundred sixty (960) hours. In the case of death, the benefit shall be payable to the decedent's estate.

   For purposes of section (h) an employee shall be considered to have retired when such employee takes action that is inconsistent with any reasonable intent to continue employment

with the Municipality.

   (i)    An employee who transfers from one department of the City to any department of the City shall be allowed to transfer his accumulated sick leave to the new department.

   (j)   When a Fire Department employee changes regularly scheduled work hours from a standard Fire Department shift to a forty (40) hour work week, or vice versa, the accumulated balance for sick leave shall remain intact and not be adjusted for hourly rates at the time of changing work hours.

   (k)    An employee who has accumulated a total of nine hundred sixty (960) hours in unused sick time as of January 1st of a given year is eligible to turn in sick leave earned but not used in the current year. An employee will receive a cash payment equal to seventy-five percent (75%) of his hourly rate at the time the leave is turned on. Such hours shall be turned in by January 15th of the succeeding year and shall be paid in February of that year.

   (l)   An employee who does not use any sick leave during a quarter of the calendar year shall receive four (4) hours of bonus pay, up to sixteen (16) hours annually. The bonus shall be paid annually by the second period following the calendar year it was earned. Use of personal sick leave shall not be counted as use of sick time for purposes of this paragraph.

(Ord. 33-2022. Passed 7-26-22.)