405 Short Term Paid Sick Leave
Eligibility
Full time regular staff (maintains a regular schedule of 35 or more hours per week) earn sick leave coverage at a rate of one day a month at full pay (100%) and one day a month at (60%) of pay for each month actively at work, up to a maximum of 65 days in each account. The 60% of pay will be referred to as Short-Term Disability (STD).
Part time regular staff (those who are regularly scheduled to work 17 ½ hours or more per week) will earn sick leave coverage at a rate of ½ day a month at full pay (100%) and ½ day a month at 60% of pay for each month actively at work, up to a maximum of 65 days in each account.
Accrual
Employees accrue their sick leave at the conclusion of each month worked.
The use of PTO days, FMLA or sick days will be considered as “workdays” for the purpose of this policy and sick days do not accrue during periods of unpaid leave.
The amounts accumulated will be calculated and maintained in the Human Resources Department. An individual’s PTO and sick time may be found on the Human Resources Web page, under Employee Resources.
An employee’s sick pay account may not contain more than 130 days total (65 days at 100% pay and 65 days at 60% of pay), at the end of each calendar year.
Newly hired employees become eligible to accrue sick leave coverage after 3 months of continuous employment. Those 3 months will be counted as follows: (example) – if an employee starts March 15th – the month of March is not counted, April, May and June would be counted as the 3 full months of continuous employment. The first day accrued will be July 31st in this example.
Procedures
- An employee who suffers an illness that will result in an absence from work, must notify their supervisor at the beginning of their normal work schedule. Evidence of illness, in the form of a physician’s statement or through other methods, may be requested by the immediate supervisor at any time. If evidence satisfactory to the college is not promptly received, sick pay benefits may not be paid.
- Use of 100% Sick Leave - Earned sick days may be used for the following reasons:
- the illness of the employee and their child(ren);
- scheduled/ approved medical/dental appointments for employee and their child(ren). Employees should minimize the amount of time away from work, with regards to medical/dental appointments. For example, try to schedule appointments at the very beginning or end of a work shift;
- birth of a child, or placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care;
- in the event of a serious health condition of a spouse/domestic partner and/or parent ordinarily as defined under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In extraordinary cases where the spouse/domestic partner (as defined on page 53), or parent could not provide self-care as provided for under the FMLA, but does not meet the more than 3-day requirement of FMLA, the employee could utilize one to two days of sick leave. (An example would be someone having outpatient surgery and may need transportation on the date of treatment);
- in the event of a serious health condition, as defined under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) above for whom the staff member has power of attorney;
- in the event of a serious health condition, as defined under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) above for the employee’s mother-in-law and father-in-law;
- qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse/partner, child, or parent is on active duty or has been called to active duty status in support of a contingency operation as a member of the National Guard or Reserves;
- you are the spouse/partner, child, parent or next of kin of a covered service member with a serious injury or illness.
- Any individual who is off for more than three (3) or more days needs to contact Human Resources no later than the third day of absence to determine if the absence falls under FMLA leave and if so, appropriate paperwork can be completed.
- During an extended period of illness, accrued sick days at 100% of pay, will be paid first. After 100% days have been exhausted, an individual may, following a 5 day waiting period, access their short-term disability. For pay purposes, an individual may use PTO days during that waiting period.
- Sick days may only be taken in ¼, ½, ¾, or full day increments. (Note: Conversion of 60% days into 100% days – e.g. convert five 60% days into three 100% days, will not be permitted).
- It is expected that employees will make every attempt to build up their sick days to cover a long-term illness. These should not be considered as extra “vacation” or “personal” days. Abuse of the sick leave time may lead to disciplinary action.
- To receive sick leave pay, hourly employees sick time must be listed as sick days on the employee’s timecard and approved by their supervisor.
- Salaried staff should enter their sick time through CentreNet, located behind the Staff tab and then via the Time Entry/Approval link.
- Accrued sick days are not paid out when an employee terminates from the College.