(a) Regular full-time employees shall be credited with one and one-quarter (1 ¼) days for each month of services, not to exceed fifteen (15) days per calendar year. Such days shall continue to accumulate at such rate without any maximum limitations. Provided the conditions of Section 2134.51, Termination and Severance Pay, have been met, unused sick leave accumulated and shall be paid out as follows.
(i) Employees hired on or before December 31, 2012 shall be covered under the original severance plan, unless they opt out of the original severance plan in writing before March 1, 2013 to the Court Administrator. Provided the conditions of Section 2134.51, Termination and Severance Pay, have been met, unused sick leave under the original severance plan will be paid out as follows: the bank of sick leave established effective December 31, 2012 will be paid out at the rate of one-half (1/2) the employee's regular rate of pay as of the date of separation for all banked sick time up to two hundred (200) days and full pay at the employee's regular rate of pay as of the date of separation for accumulated sick time in excess of two hundred (200) days. The total number of days to be paid is capped at the bank of sick leave the employee had available on December 31, 2012.
(ii) Employees hired after December 31, 2012, or employees who opt out of the original severance plan, shall be under the revised severance plan. Provided the conditions of Section 2134.51, Termination and Severance Pay, have been met, unused accrued sick leave under the revised severance plan will be paid as follows at the employee's regular rate of pay as of the date of separation: thirty-three percent (33%) of salary for the first eighty (80) days and fifty percent (50%) of salary for the next eighty (80) days for a maximum of one hundred and sixty (160) days.
(b) Sick leave hours not used by the end of the year can either be turned in for payment of a percentage of salary as indicated herein or carried over until retirement or separation. The maximum number of sick hours allowed for year-end payment will be forty (40). Employees using twenty (20) hours or fewer of sick leave in the preceding calendar year shall be entitled to a conversion to pay at fifty percent (50%). Employees using more than twenty (20) but forty (40) or fewer hours shall be entitled to a conversion at twenty five percent (25%). Employees with fewer than four hundred eighty (480) hours of accrued sick time or who have used more than forty (40) hours in the preceding calendar year, shall not be eligible for this conversion privilege. The employee's accrued sick leave shall be reduced by the number of hours converted to cash.
(c) An employee granted a leave of absence without pay for thirty (30) calendar days or more shall not accumulate sick pay during the period the employee is on such leave.
(d) An employee hired from another political jurisdiction within Ohio may transfer his or her unused sick time to his or her sick leave bank with the Court. Such time may be used and may be paid in accordance with the terms of this chapter.
(e) An employee may not be paid out sick leave on sick leave accumulated through the Court's Catastrophic Leave Donation Program.