(a) An employee shall be entitled to sick leave at his or her regular rate of pay, accumulated at the rate of one and one-fourth working days for each completed month of service. An employee may use sick leave only upon the approval of the Director of Public Service for absences due to personal illness, injury or exposure to contagious disease (which could be communicated to other employees) and to illness, injury or death in the employee's immediate family. Unused sick leave shall be accumulated.
(b) Previously accumulated sick leave of an employee who has been separated from the public service may be placed to his or her credit upon his or her re-employment in the public service, provided that such re-employment takes place within ten years of the date on which the employee was last terminated from the city services. An employee who transfers from one department to another shall be credited with the unused balance of his or her accumulated sick leave.
(c) Accumulated sick leave shall be allowed only under the following specific terms and conditions: illness, injury or exposure to contagious disease suffered by the employee, or serious illness, injury or death in the employee's immediate family. To be valid, all sick leave applications for absences of three days or more must be certified by a doctor.
(d) For purposes of this section, an employee's "immediate family" shall be deemed to be his or her spouse, children, parents, brothers, sisters or such dependents as may be members of his or her immediate household.
(e) An employee who has accumulated sick leave in excess of 90 days may forfeit his or her accumulated sick leave for additional vacation. Each employee with such an excess of sick leave may forfeit two days of sick leave in exchange for one additional day of vacation. No employee shall be entitled to more than five additional days of vacation in any year. Further, no employee shall be permitted to forfeit sick leave if doing so would reduce the employee's sick leave total below 90 days. Only sick leave which has been accrued can be forfeited in exchange for additional vacation time.
(Ord. 20-95, passed 11-20-1995)