Time of Vacation (a) All vacation earned during one (1) vacation year shall be taken during the next following vacation year at a mutually agreeable time.
(i) The Employer shall post the vacation schedule planner by January 1st of each year. At this time, the Employer shall provide guidance as to the reasonable number of Employees for each unit, program, or site (whichever are applicable) who can be granted vacation at the same time. An Employee shall submit their vacation preference for at least 75% of their annual vacation entitlement by March 15th of that year. Where an Employee submits their vacation preference by March 15th of that year, the Employer shall indicate approval or disapproval of that vacation request and shall post the resulting vacation schedule by April 30th of the same year. Where the number of Employees indicating a preference for a specific period exceeds the number of Employees as determined by the Employer that can be allocated vacation during that period, seniority relative to other Employees in the unit, program or site (whichever are applicable) shall be the deciding factor.
(ii) When an Employee submits a request in writing after April 30th for vacation, the Employer shall indicate approval or disapproval in writing of the vacation request within 14 days of the request.
(c) Notwithstanding Article 17.03(a), an Employee may be permitted to carry forward a portion of unused vacation to the next vacation year. Requests to carry forward vacation shall be made in writing and shall not be unreasonably denied.
(d) Notwithstanding Article 17.03
(a) a Full-time or Part-time Employee shall have the right to utilize vacation credits during the vacation year in which they are earned provided the following conditions are met:
(i) the utilization does not exceed the total vacation earned by the Employee at the time of taking the vacation; and
(ii) such vacation can be taken at a mutually agreeable time.
(e) (i) Subject to Article 17.03(e)(ii), the Employer shall grant the annual vacation to which the Employee is entitled in one (1) unbroken period.
VACATION LEAVE WITH PAY 14.01 The vacation year shall be from April 1st of one calendar year to March 31st of the following calendar year inclusive.
Accumulation of Vacation Leave For each month of a fiscal year in which an employee receives ten (10) days pay, he shall earn vacation leave at the following rates:
Time Off The company recognises that sufficient time off to attend to personal matters and for recreation are important to the employee’s wellbeing, job satisfaction and overall productivity. Accordingly, time off may be taken with the consent of the Company, which shall not be unreasonably withheld. In considering the approval to have time off, the Parties will have regard to the current works programme and the urgency of the reason for time off. In the event that time off is to be taken, it will be the employee’s obligation to advise the Company in advance or as soon as practicable on the day of absence, recognising that unplanned absences can cause costly disruption to programmed works and are a major source of annoyance for the company, other employees and clients. The object of offering flexible working hours is that in return employees will take very seriously their obligation to turn up when they are expected. In view of the disruption caused by unplanned and or notified absenteeism, repeated failure to observe the protocol for time off would constitute misconduct.
Sick Leave Transfer The Board will honor written requests from a bargaining unit member to donate one or more sick leave days from the donor’s accumulated sick leave to a member under the following conditions:
1. The written request for donation of sick leave shall be forwarded to the Superintendent and the Association President who shall meet and confer if the request falls into the category of “catastrophic”. For purposes of this Section normal pregnancy shall not be considered a “catastrophic” illness. Any disagreement between the Association President and the Superintendent shall be resolved using expedited arbitration in accordance with the voluntary rules of the Federal Mediation Conciliation Services (FMCS). Expenses for the arbitrator’s services shall be equally shared by the parties.
a. Should the Association President and the Superintendent agree that the request falls in the category of “catastrophic”, they will forward the request to the Sick Leave Transfer Committee.
b. Should the Association President and the Superintendent agree that the request does not represent a catastrophic illness or injury, the request shall then be denied. The member will have the right to request expedited arbitration indicated in paragraph a. above.
2. Donated sick leave days may only be credited to a member who has, or is about to exhaust all of the members’ accumulated sick leave and personal leave due to a catastrophic illness or injury of the member or illness of child and/or spouse of the member.
3. Donated sick leave days may only be used for personal catastrophic illness/injury of the member, or illness of child and/or spouse of the member, and may not be used for the illness of other family members.
4. A sick leave donation form, authorizing the Treasurer to deduct donated sick leave days from the donor member’s accumulated sick leave and to credit the donated sick leave day(s) to the member will be sent to unit members for completion. Completed forms will be returned to the committee. The committee will provide the Treasurer with a form indicating the number of days to be transferred, from whom, and the name of the recipient.
5. Any request to donate sick leave days to a member must be submitted to the Treasurer not less than fifteen (15) days prior to any payroll that will include payment for the donated sick leave days.
6. Any member who has reached the maximum sick leave accumulation will have his accumulation reduced by the number of sick leave days donated.
7. Requests for sick leave days will be honored only as long as days are available from donors.
8. The following limitations will apply to this section:
a. No bargaining unit member who begins the school year with less than 45 days as of July 1 can donate sick days.
b. Donations from a bargaining unit member must be in units of one (1) day or more provided that the donor does not go under 45 days of accumulated sick leave.
c. Either the bargaining unit member or the member’s spouse and/or child must have the catastrophic illness or injury.
d. The bargaining unit member can use donated sick days until disability retirement is effective.
9. No member may use donated sick leave days to defer eligibility for disability retirement under STRS regulations, to claim severance pay, or to transfer to any other public employer.
10. No member may use more than thirty (30) donated sick leave days in total in any year. 18
SICK LEAVE WITH PAY Sick leave with pay for employees shall be determined in the following manner:
Recall from Vacation Leave When during any period of vacation leave an employee is recalled to duty, he shall be reimbursed for reasonable expenses, as normally defined by the Employer, that he incurs:
Splitting of Vacation Periods Annual vacations for employees with ten (10) work days’ vacation or more shall be granted in one (1) continuous period but may, upon request from the employee, be divided, subject to the approval of the Employer, provided that the following shall apply:
1. The Employer’s approval shall not be unreasonably withheld, taking into consideration the operational requirements of the department; and
2. At least one block of vacation shall be at least five (5) days in duration. Employees wishing to split their vacations shall exercise seniority rights in the choice of the first vacation period. Seniority shall prevail in the choice of the second vacation period, but only after all other “first” vacation periods have been approved. Seniority shall also prevail in the choice of each subsequent vacation period, but only after each previous vacation period has been approved. Annual vacations for employees with less than ten (10) work days’ vacation shall be granted in one (1) continuous period.
Prime Time Vacation Period Subject to the provisions of this article, it is the intent of the parties that no employee will be restricted in the time of year they choose to take their vacation. The Employer will make every effort to allow employees to take their vacation during the period of April 15th to October 15th inclusive, which will be defined as the prime time vacation period.
Restoration of Vacation Leave In the event an employee is injured or becomes ill while on vacation leave, the employee may submit a written request to use sick leave and have the equivalent amount of vacation leave restored. The supervisor may require a written medical certificate.
