(a) Personal business/leave. Up to three personal leave days are available to regular full-time employees, with the approval of the department head. PERSONAL BUSINESS, for this section, means a short, definite period of time during which the eligible employee is compelled by forces beyond his or her control to be absent during work hours. Paid time off for personal business will be limited to circumstances involving serious compelling situations, including, but not limited to the death of a non-immediate family member and jury duty. For the death of the employees’ spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, mother-in-law or father-in-law, the employee may receive up to three days of pay, ending with the day of the funeral. If the employee is subpoenaed as a witness or for jury duty, the employee will receive the difference between regular pay and the witness/juror fee provided that the employee makes every effort to appear for work during the portion of the employee’s normal work day and that does not conflict with court time.
(1) At the first payroll of the year, eligible employees will be credited with personal business/leave as outlined in division (a) above.
(2) Personal business/leave must be used within the calendar year and is not allowed to be carried over without the express, written permission of the City Manager.
(Ord. 2003-117, passed 10-13-2003)
(b) Sick pay. Sick pay will be provided to an employee when that employee is unable to work because of a personal illness or injury, or when a member of the employee’s immediate family is ill or injured and the employee requests an absence to care for the family member.
(1) For full-time regular employees who work a regular 40 hours work week, three and seven-tenths hours of sick leave will be credited for each full pay period worked following hire.
(2) For employees working a 48-hour work week, as outlined in § 165.06(a)(2), approximately four and four-tenths hours of sick leave will be credited for each full pay period worked following hire, not to exceed 115 hours per calendar year.
(3) Sick pay credit accumulates without limit.
(4) A request for sick leave must be made to the department head/director.
(5) Sick leave may be taken for, but is not limited to the following:
A. Illness or injury of the employee;
B. Any condition related to pregnancy and/or childbirth;
C. Paternity leave not to exceed five days immediately following the birth of the child;
D. Non-emergency medical treatment of the employee or the employee’s immediate family members, when the employee’s presence is required;
E. Illness in employee’s immediate family if the employee has exhausted available personal days; and
F. Attendance at a funeral for a person other than a member of the immediate family with prior approval of the department head/director, provided the member has exhausted available personal days.
(6) Sick leave accrual is not increased because of overtime worked.
(7) Sick leave conversion at retirement.
A. Upon retirement, a full-time, regular employee who meets the age and length of service requirements of the Public Employees Retirement System or the Police and Fireman's Disability and Pension Fund, whichever is applicable, and who was also in the service of the city for a period of ten continuous years prior to retirement from the city, may convert accumulated sick leave at agreed-upon rates. Once an employee has earned 500 hours of sick leave, the employee may convert it at the following rates:
1. One hour to 1,600 hours at three hours of sick leave to one hour of pay;
2. 1,601 hours to 1,800 hours at two hours to one hour of pay;
3. 1,801 hours to 2,300 hours at one hour of sick leave to one hour of pay.
B. Conversion rates are for hours earned in each tier and are not retroactive to all hours accumulated. The maximum of redeemable hours shall be 2,300 hours. The maximum payout shall not exceed 1,133 hours of pay. Sick hours are not convertible to cash under any other circumstances.
C. Payment will be based on the employee's base rate of pay at the time of retirement.
D. The conversion of sick leave to cash will be made as a lump sum payment and will eliminate all sick leave credit accrued by the employee.
E. Retirement, as used in this policy, is hereby defined as a separation of a regular full-time or regular part-time employee after ten continuous years of service in good standing with the city, and a separation where the employee is eligible per the respective plan, as well as meets other applicable criteria (i.e. age for retirement) for regular or disability retirement benefits from the appropriate State of Ohio Pension Plan within one year from the date of separation.
(Ord. 00-105, passed 7-24-2000; Ord. 2003-117, passed 10-13-2003; Ord. 2012-29, passed 4-9-2012)
(c) Injury pay.
(1) The city will continue the regular pay of employees who are absent from work due to an injury or occupational disease arising out of and occurring in the course of their employment for the city during the period of time beginning on the date of the absence from work and continuing until the earliest of the following:
A. Return to work;
B. A finding by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation that no temporary or permanent total disability payments will be made;
C. Termination of employment;
D. Failure by the employee to diligently pursue his or her workers’ compensation benefit;
E. Expiration of 12 calendar weeks from the date of the qualifying injury or commencement of the qualifying disability; and
F. The employee is otherwise ineligible for injury pay.
(2) By accepting injury pay, and as a condition thereof, the employee will execute a written agreement assigning to the city disability payments received for the period of time the employee received injury pay compensation from the city. The written agreement shall also specify that the employee will repay the city any advancements made by the city in error for periods when the employee was not in fact totally disabled. The employee further agrees that the warrants from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation will be mailed to the employee in care of the city. An employee may not receive a combination of injury pay and workers’ compensation and/or disability insurance which total more than 100% of his or her normal wages for the period of his or her absence. A decision by the Personnel Director terminating injury pay may be appealed to the Personnel Board of Review in writing within ten days of the decision and the decision of the Board of Review, after hearing, shall be final.
(3) In addition to injury pay, the city will maintain the employee’s insurance benefits during the period of time that the employee qualifies for injury pay up to six months from the date of injury or commencement of disability. Probationary employees do not earn vacation credit while drawing injury pay. A permanent employee who is drawing injury pay at any time during any calendar year shall be credited on January 1 of the next calendar year with the vacation credit that the employee would have earned but for absence due to qualifying industrial injury or disease. However, one- twelfth of the vacation credit shall be deducted for each month or each part of a month in excess of ten working days during which employee was drawing injury pay during the prior calendar year. An employee drawing injury pay for six months or less who returns to active payroll status for a period of at least six months after the discontinuance of injury pay shall have restored to his or her credit the pro-rata deductions of vacation credit attributable to the first period of industrial injury or disease.
(d) Military pay. Regular full-time employees who are ordered to appear for active duty or annual training (but not weekend drill or voluntary duty or training carried out at the option of the employee) will receive the difference between their regular city pay and military pay for the days of absence up to a total of 31 days per calendar year. An employee will receive no pay from the city under this provision if his or her military pay is higher than the city pay.
(e) Sick leave donation program.
(1) This program has been established to help those employees and their families who are terminally ill and/or have a catastrophic illness (i.e. cancers, kidney or liver disease/failure, severe heart attack, and the like). TERMINAL ILLNESS is defined as a medical condition that will result in death in less than 12 months. A CATASTROPHIC ILLNESS OR INJURY is defined as a medical condition that poses a direct and immediate threat to life and requires inpatient or hospice care and mandates more than six months away from work recovering from the catastrophic illness or injury. The employee must have exhausted all other accrued leave, including sick, vacation, HRT and personal leave, prior to using
time from the Sick Leave Bank. This program does not supersede nor replace other retirement or disability programs.
(2) Any employee may voluntarily elect to contribute, permanently, sick leave hourly credits. If there is a request from an employee to use the Sick Leave Bank and there are no available hours in the bank, the Human Resources Department will send a notification to all employees requesting their help.
(3) In addition, the following criteria will apply.
A. Only regular non- probationary employees are eligible to donate sick leave hourly credits or be the recipient of a donation.
B. A sick leave hourly credit will not have an hourly rate attached.
C. For those employees with less than 500 hours of accrued sick time, they are eligible to donate a maximum of eight hours per year to the Sick Leave Bank. Employees with 500 hours or more may contribute up to a maximum of 24 hours per year to the Sick Leave Bank. An employee may contribute up to two times a year (first pay period in March and September) to the Sick Leave Bank.
D. A sick leave hourly credit donation is permanent and therefore cannot be returned to the donor or converted to cash by the employee's estate.
E. The sick leave hourly credits will be used in place of the requesting employee's regularly scheduled work week.
F. A donated sick leave hourly credit will not count as a separate absence for the donating employee.
G. If applicable, employees who receive donated time from the Sick Leave Bank and who return to work following a catastrophic event, will donate back to the bank two hours of sick time for every eight hours as they accrue further sick leave. An employee will not accrue vacation or sick leave while receiving donated sick leave. An employee will be eligible for this program up to one year after he or she has exhausted all accumulated paid leave (vacation, sick, personal, comp time, HRT time).
H. An employee or their immediate family member's terminal or catastrophic illness or injury must be certified by a physician.
I. An employee who voluntarily chooses to donate sick leave credits must complete a Sick Leave Donation Form and submit it to the Human Resources Director who will review, approve and forward to the Finance Department, who will deduct the credit from the donating employee's sick leave balance and return the form to the Human Resources Director, who will maintain the record.
J. When an employee or his or her immediate family member is terminally ill and/or a catastrophic illness occurs and the employee is about to exhaust their regular sick leave, a request for donated sick leave may be requested in writing from the Sick Leave Bank in hourly credit increments. All requests should be addressed to the Human Resources Director. The physician's certification must be attached. Again, the employee must exhaust all accrued time, including sick, vacation, personal, comp and HRT time prior to receiving sick leave credits from the Sick Leave Bank.
K. After receipt of the request, the Human Resources Director will forward to the City Manager's office for review and approval.
L. The maximum donated sick leave credits that may be approved for any one employee per year is 1,000.
M. For purpose of this policy, IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER shall include: employee's current spouse, child, stepchild, brother, sister, mother, stepmother/father, and mother/father-in-law and grandparents.
N. The City Manager is authorized to make occasional adjustments to this program to accommodate participation and need.
(Ord. 94-48, passed 4-25-1994; Ord. 2003-117, passed 10-13-2003; Ord. 2012-19, passed 3-12-2012)