Sick Leave Pool Procedures

Purpose

To help protect the employee from loss of income due to a personal major illness or injury (a condition that has rendered the employee temporarily unable to perform the essential functions of the job). There is an expectation of employees returning to work and is not intended for the terminally ill.

Eligibility and Contributions

Participation in the sick leave pool shall be voluntary. Any full-time employee shall be eligible for initial participation in the pool after one year of employment with the College provided that the employee has accrued at least ten days of accumulated sick leave for those employees on twelve-month contracts and eight days for those employees on nine-month contracts. Personnel under grant contracts may not participate in the Sick Leave Pool. Employees must be a member of the Pool prior to joining the Deferred Retirement Optional Plan (DROP).

Initial opening enrollment in the pool shall be open during the enrollment period in December each year. An employee may withdraw from the pool any time by notifying Human Resources in writing. However, contributions will not be refunded.

Any sick leave contributed to the pool shall be removed from the accumulated sick leave balance of the employee contributing sick leave. If less than fifty (50) full-time employees elect to participate in the sick leave pool, it will not be implemented.

Each participating employee shall make an initial contribution of two (2) days to the pool upon enrollment. Any further contributions shall be made only as needed for replenishing the pool balance and shall be equally required of all members. The Senior Vice President for Administrative Services shall authorize a call for replenishment when the balance is less than fifty (50%) of the enrollment contributions base. The enrollment contributions base shall be the two days per member on the enrollment anniversary date (December 31). Each call for replenishment shall be for one (1) day from each participant in the pool. The number of calls to replenish the balance shall not exceed four unless each additional call is authorized by a majority vote of the participating employees.

If at the time of replenishment, a twelve-month member does not have ten (10) sick leave days or a nine-month member eight (8) sick leave days to make the required contribution, the member shall automatically be withdrawn from the pool until enough sick leave is accumulated by the employee to make the required replenishment contribution for immediate reinstatement. This provision may be waived by the Senior Vice President for Administrative Services if the employee has utilized ten (10) consecutive days of sick leave within the immediate twelve month period. An employee using the sick leave pool when a replenishment call is made will not be dropped from the sick leave pool as a participant. However, the employee will be withdrawn from the pool upon the return to work until enough sick leave is accumulated by the employee to make the required replenishment contribution for immediate reinstatement.

A participating employee who chooses to no longer participate in the sick leave pool shall not be eligible to withdraw any sick leave already contributed to the pool.

Any illness or injury covered by Worker's Compensation is not eligible for sick leave pool benefits until all Worker's Compensation leave benefits and college sick and annual leave have been used. A medical condition that is covered by disability insurance will not be covered.

Use of the Sick Leave Pool

Any sick leave time drawn from the pool by a member must be used for the member's own personal illness, accident or injury. Sick leave from the pool shall not be authorized for maternity leave, except in the case of complications to the employee. Elective, cosmetic, or reconstructive surgery is not authorized unless it is the result of a major illness, accident, or injury.

Use of leave from the pool shall at all times be contingent upon the availability of days in the pool. A participating employee shall not be able to use sick leave from the pool until all of his/her sick and annual leave (except eight <8> hours of each) has been depleted and two days of unpaid leave are taken.

When any sick leave is used from the pool, a physician's statement verifying the period of time an employee is unable to work is required. The maximum number of days for which an employee may draw consecutive sick leave from the pool shall be limited to 120 days of any 360-day period from the first day of sick leave pool use. A participating employee who uses sick leave from the pool shall not be required to re-contribute such sick leave to the pool, except as provided for the replenishment of the balance.

Administration of the Sick Leave Pool

Human Resources shall maintain complete and accurate records of the pool. Each enrollment, contribution, use of leave, and withdrawal by participating members shall be documented on a signed form. In the event the sick leave pool is dissolved, all contributions to the pool will be reinstated to the contributor's accrued sick leave balance on a pro-rata basis.

Human Resources shall investigate any alleged abuses of the pool and shall make a report to the Senior Vice President for Administrative Services of its findings. The Senior Vice President shall determine if the pool has been abused, and in the finding of actual abuse, the employee shall repay all of the sick leave used from the pool and shall be subject to other disciplinary action as provided by the rules of the District Board of Trustees.

The Employee Benefits Committee shall annually review the administration, use, balance, and rules of the sick leave pool and make any necessary recommendations to the College-Wide Council.