Sick Leave 16.01 Employees shall earn sick leave at the rate of 7.0 hours for each payroll period worked or when on an authorized leave. Sick leave accumulation shall be unlimited.
16.02 Sick leave shall be defined as an absence with pay necessitated by: 1) illness or injury to the employee; 2) exposure by the employee to a contagious disease communicable to other em- ployees; 3) serious illness or injury in the employee's immediate family; or 4) death in the employee's extended family, as defined in Article 29, Funeral Leave; or 5) pregnancy related condition of the employee or spouse of the affected employee.
16.03 A sick leave affidavit or a doctor's excuse is required to justify the use of sick leaves for illness. If the use of sick leave for such illness exceeds two (2) consecutive scheduled shifts, a certificate stating the nature of the illness from a licensed physician shall be required to justify the use of sick leave. Falsification or alteration of a written, signed statement or a physician's certificate shall be grounds for disciplinary action. Any abuse or patterned use of sick leave shall be just and sufficient cause for disciplinary action.
16.04 Before the time when an employee is scheduled to start work on a shift, said employee requesting sick leave shall inform the officer in charge of the shift of the fact that said employee is ill and is requesting sick leave, except in case of provable inability to make a phone call. Failure so to do shall result in the denial of sick leave by the Employer. When an employee seeks to use sick leave for an absence due to personal illness, injury, or exposure to contagious disease communicable to other employees, the employee will be expected to be reachable at a provided telephone number unless, when calling in to report off, he provides the employer with an alternative number at which the employee may be reached.
16.05 Absence for a fraction of a day, when such absence is chargeable to sick leave accumulation in accordance with these provisions, shall be charged in increments of whole hours and never less than one (1) hour. Sick leave, when used, shall be consumed on the basis of one hour of sick leave for each hour of absence.
16.06 An employee who is laid off or on unpaid disability leave will, upon reinstatement to service, retain credit for all accumulated and unused sick leave available to such employee at the time of layoff or leave.
16.07 When sick leave is requested to care for members in the immediate family, the department head may require a physician's certificate to the effect that the specific presence of the employee is necessary to care for the ill or injured member. In the event of a prolonged illness of a member of the immediate family, it is understood that the employee will make arrangements as soon as possible for outside assistance to care for the afflicted member of the family. Paid sick leave will be granted for only a reasonable period of time to enable the employee to make the necessary arrangements, normally not in excess of five (5) calendar days.
16.08 For purposes of this article, "immediate family" is defined to include only the employee's spouse, child, father, mother, xxxxxxx, stepchild, grandparents, or a dependent who lives in the household and the employee is the primary caregiver, legal guardian, or person who stands in place of a parent (in loco parentis).
16.09 Xxxx leave may be granted as additional time off for a death in the family, in accordance with Article 29.
16.10 Upon retirement after completion of ten (10) years or more of service with the Employer, death, or permanent disability of a nature which renders the employee incapable of continued service with the Employer, and for which the employee has qualified for retirement benefits from a State of Ohio public employees retirement system, the employee may sell out accrued sick leave and shall be paid an amount of money equal to the number of accrued hours of sick leave up to a maximum of 2800 hours divided by two (2) multiplied by the employee’s annual salary, as said salary exists at the date of death or retirement, divided by 2548.
A) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph, an employee shall have the option to convert to cash benefit or carry forward the balance of any unused sick leave credit at year's end. For purposes of this paragraph 16.11, the term year's end" means the last day of the last full pay period of any calendar year.
B) An employee who is credited sick leave pursuant to this Article 16, shall have at year's end the following options with regard to the portion of sick leave credit accumulated during the current calendar year:
1) Carry forth the balance of sick leave credit; or
2) Receive a cash benefit conversion for the unused balance of sick leave credit equal to one hour of the employee's base rate of pay for every two hours of unused sick leave credit that is converted; or
3) Carry forward a portion of the balance of sick leave credit and receive a cash benefit conversion of a portion of the sick leave credit.
C) A cash benefit conversion for unused sick leave credit can only be utilized for sick leave credited an employee in the year in which the credit is given. All sick leave credit balances that are carried forward at the year's end are excluded from any future cash benefit conversion option. The failure of an employee to utilize the cash benefit conversion shall result in the automatic carry forward of any balance of sick leave credit.
D) In order to receive a cash conversion of sick leave credit at year's end, an employee must, after exercise of the cash conversion option, have at least the following minimum accumulated sick leave credit at year's end: year's end in 2002: 375 hours
E) An employee who separates from service prior to year's end (as defined in “A” above) shall not be eligible for the cash conversion benefit of the unused sick leave credit.
F) Any cash benefit conversion of sick leave made at year's end shall not be subject to contributions to any of the retirement systems either by the employee or the City.
G) An employee eligible to receive a cash conversion of sick leave credit at year's end must indicate their desire to convert any sick leave no later than the end of the pay period that includes the first day of November.
16.12 An employee who is approved for extended sick leave will be considered to be on a forty hour per week schedule until they return to their normal shift. All employees shall be charged forty (40) hours of sick leave for each week they are on extended leave. Extended sick leave is defined as use of leave for three full consecutive tours of duty or more. This section will invoke on the first Monday following the onset of the injury, or illness, unless the absence is medically determined in advance. The forty hour benefit will continue through the return to duty. The first sick days preceding the first Monday will be charged at the normal rate. If a return to duty is during a partial week, sick leave will be charged for the partial week at a rate of 40 hours less the actual hours worked.
16.13 In case of birth by an Employee’s spouse, an Employee assigned to twenty four (24) hour shifts may use up to two (2) tours of duty (five (5) eight-hour tours of duty for personnel assigned to a 2080 hrs. 5 day-week schedule) of sick leave for the purpose of “Maternity Leave”, unless serious health conditions require additional time off and is certified by the attending physician.
