(a) An employee shall be required to furnish a certificate from a physician, dentist or other licensed medical practitioner who is treating the employee, when the employee is absent for three (3) or more consecutive shifts which he or she is scheduled to work, unless the City Manager grants an exemption. The City Manager, department head, or Human Resources Manager may require any employee to provide a certificate from a medical provider under this section for absences of less than three (3) days where he or she deems it necessary to verify the proper use of sick leave.
(b) Sick leave is credited for full-time employees at 120 hours per year according to administrative policy and shall be granted as follows for:
(1) Illness or injury to the employee.
(2) Up to a maximum of five (5) working days, for each illness or injury, when the illness or injury is to a member of the employee's immediate family, for whom the employee's care and presence is required.
(3) Death of a member of the employee's immediate family. Sick leave may be used to a maximum of three (3) days. Immediate family is defined as: spouse, child, mother, father, brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandmother, grandfather or grandchild; and any aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, or other in-law who was, at the time of their death, a permanent resident of the employee's household. In the case of the death of a spouse, child, or parent, the employee may use up to a maximum of five (5) days of sick leave.
(4) Death of any other relative, not defined as a member of the employee's immediate family (including the death of a close personal friend of the employee). Sick leave may be used to a maximum of one (1) day, unless the employee requests and receives their supervisor's advanced approval for additional time off.
(5) Medical, dental or optical examinations or treatment of the employee, or a member of the employee's immediate family which requires the presence of the employee.
(6) Exposure of the employee to a contagious disease when such exposure, in the opinion of a licensed physician, would render the employee a hazard to the health of others, or would further jeopardize the employee's health or well-being.
(c) An employee who retires from City service, except those terminated for cause or whose resignation was accepted in lieu of being terminated for cause, with fifteen (15) years service who has accumulated a minimum of four hundred eighty (480) hours of sick leave, may convert and be paid for fifty percent (50%) of accrued sick leave. No more than one thousand two hundred and forty-eight (1,248) hours may be converted, and the maximum converted value may not exceed six hundred twenty-four (624) hours of pay. In order to be eligible for the conversion of sick leave, the employee must retire at the time of separation under one of the public employee retirement systems established by the State of Ohio or the City of Cincinnati. Notwithstanding the foregoing, an employee who leaves City service and is entitled to transfer accrued sick leave to another employer pursuant to Ohio R.C. 124.38, shall notify the City Manager or the City Manager's designee thereof and such sick leave shall be transferred and not converted.
(d) In the event of the death of an employee other than a death resulting from the performance of his or her job duties, the employee's accumulated sick leave shall be converted for payment at fifty percent (50%) of accrued credit. No more than one thousand two hundred and forty-eight (1,248) hours may be converted, and the maximum converted value shall therefore not exceed six hundred and twenty-four (624) hours of pay.
(e) If an employee dies as a result of performance of his or her work duties, one hundred percent (100%) of the employee's accumulated sick leave shall be converted for payment up to a maximum of one thousand two hundred and forty-eight (1,248) hours.
(Ord. 2011-80. Passed 10-11-11.)