Defined as that leave granted to an officer who is physically sick or injured to the extent that their performance would be restricted or they would jeopardize the health of others with whom they would come in contact. This definition also includes mental illness and surgical procedure performed at the election of the officer as well as disease and non-duty related injury.
a. Officers shall earn sick/injury leave at the rate of six (6) days per year of continuous service accrued at the rate of eighteen (18) hours per quarter of continuous service for patrol personnel assigned to 12 hour shifts and twelve (12) hours per quarter for personnel on 8 hour shifts.
b. Officers may not be allowed to accrue in excess of 1040 hours of sick/injury leave.
c. Any authorized sick/injury leave taken will be deducted from the officer's accrued total.
d. Paid sick/injury leave will not be granted unless the officer has accumulated the sick/injury leave prior to sickness or injury.
1. Any sickness or injury that occurs without accumulated sick/injury leave shall be without pay.
2. Officers shall not be allowed paid sick/leave based upon future accruals of sick/injury leave.
e. The Town of Schererville, through the Chief of Police reserves the right to require psychological or medical examination by a physician of its choice when a department employee exceeds three (3) consecutively scheduled work shifts on sick/injury leave.
1. Officers on authorized sick/injury leave shall be required to provide any medical information required by proper department authority.
2. Officers on sick/injury leave may be required to sign medical information releases if requested by proper authority.
f. Officers utilizing three (3) consecutively scheduled work shifts on sick/injury leave shall provide the officer's physician's documentation indicating nature or sickness/injury and authorization to return to work.
g. Misrepresentation, untruthfulness or omission regarding circumstances of sick/injury leave requests or regarding employee's individual physical or mental health may be considered cause for disciplinary action and/or termination.
h. Routine sickness/injury leave requests require that an officer must contact the duty supervisor who will complete the required leave form and advise the officer's supervisor or the Division Commander.
i. Officer should make every effort to advise the on-duty supervisor of sickness/injury at least two (2) hours prior to their scheduled tour of duty.
j. Compensation of sick/injury leave will not be paid to an officer who retires under a disability or medical retirement.
k. Duty-related injury leave. Officers injured while on duty or officers injured while engaged in authorized police actions while off-duty are covered by the Town's Workers Compensation Insurance health plan. An officer on duty -related injury leave shall remain on the Town payroll system receiving the same benefits as if they were an active officer. The officer may be granted injury leave as described below:
1. The Chief of Police shall be authorized at his/her sole discretion to place an officer on duty-related injury leave status upon consultation with the Workers Compensation physician(s). The Chief of Police shall be authorized to evaluate and review all the facts and circumstances involving the injury leave request and make a final determination on such request. The Board of Safety shall be informed of the Chief of Police's decision and action and receive monthly status reports.
2. Officers on duty-related injury leave may be authorized up to a maximum of 1,040 hours of such leave at the sole discretion of the Chief of Police, who shall utilize all related medical reports from the officer's and/or Town's appointed physician in making the injury leave determination.
3. Duty-related injury leave requests may be denied based upon an obvious full disability injury or obvious recovery time, which exceeds available time allocated. Under such circumstances, officers may be required by the Chief of Police to apply for disability retirement under the state retirement plan.
4. Misrepresentation, untruthfulness or omission regarding circumstances of sickness/injury leave requests may be considered cause for disciplinary action and/or termination.
5. Upon recommendation of the Schererville Board of Safety, the Town Council reserves the right to extend injury leave for duty-related injury should the circumstances justify the same. The Town Council's determination shall be made on a case-by-case basis and any such injury leave extension shall be evidenced by a duly adopted resolution of the Town Council.
6. Any authorized, duty-related injury leave granted to individual officers will not be deducted from their accrued sick/illness leave.
l. Non-duty related injury leave.
1. Officers injured in a non-duty related incident and not performing a police related action may only utilize their accrued sick/illness leave or accrued vacation time in lieu of work.
2. Officers who exhaust their accrued sick/illness leave on a non-duty related injury shall be on leave without pay status. Such officers shall also not continue to earn vacation and sick/injury leave benefits as outlined herein.
(Ord. No. 1871, § 2, 7-8-15)