Chapter 5: Personnel

05:08:17   Leave: Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank

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Purpose

The non-faculty sick leave bank provides emergency sick leave to members of the program who have suffered an unplanned personal illness, injury, disability, or quarantine and who have exhausted their personal compensatory, sick, and annual leave.

Administration

The non-faculty sick leave bank will be administered by five (5) trustees appointed by the president of Northeast State. At least three (3) of the appointees will be clerical and support staff. All appointments will be for three (3) year terms after an initial appointment of one (1) year for two trustees, two (2) years for two trustees, and three (3) years for one trustee. The trustees will elect a chair at their first meeting. Trustees will be eligible for reappointment, and any vacancy resulting from expiration of a term, retirement, resignation, discontinuation of employment, or death will be filled immediately by appointment by the president. All actions by the trustees shall require three (3) affirmative votes. 

All records and official forms of the bank and minutes of the trustee meetings will be maintained in the office of Human Resources. All records will be subject to audit by appropriate state officials.
 

1. Eligibility
   Employees will be considered eligible to participate in the non-faculty sick bank if they meet both of the following requirements:
   1. Must be a regular full-time, regular part-time, exempt, or nonexempt non faculty employee whether serving in an academic, fiscal, or modified fiscal year appointment;
   2. Must have a sick leave balance of the hourly equivalent of seven (7) days before joining the bank.

           Special Eligibility Considerations           

1. 1. Employees previously enrolled in the Faculty Sick Leave Bank who are appointed to a staff position with no breaks in service shall be eligible immediately to transfer membership to the Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank with no additional assessment or waiting period required. No hours will be transferred between the Faculty and Non-Faculty Sick Leave Banks.
   2. Members who are terminated and rehired with a break in service within a twelve (12) month period following their enrollment shall be entitled to membership with no additional assessment. Employees rehired after one enrollment year will incur a new enrollment assessment during the annual enrollment period.
   3. An employee who transfers with no break in service from another TBR institution, the University of Tennessee, or state agency, and participated in the previous employer’s sick leave bank program is immediately eligible for membership in accordance with the standard eligibility requirements noted above. The transferring employee will have 30 days from the date that Human Resources notifies them that prior service has been verified with the previous employer to enroll in the Non-Faculty Sick Bank. The employee will be required to donate the minimum assessment (hourly equivalent of 3 days) to enroll.

1. Guidelines
   1. A minimum participation of twenty (20) employees will be required to establish and maintain the bank. Those electing to participate in the bank will initially have the hourly equivalent of three (3) days of sick leave deducted from their accumulated sick leave and transferred to the bank.
      
      The initial enrollment period will last forty five (45) days beginning with the date membership materials are initially made available to eligible employees. Anyone who wishes to participate after this period must do so during the annual enrollment period, which will be the month of October.
      
      Donations of sick leave days to the bank are NON-REFUNDABLE AND NON-TRANSFERABLE with the following exceptions
      1. If dissolution of the bank becomes necessary because the institution or branch is closed;
      2. If dissolution becomes necessary because membership in the bank falls below twenty (20) individuals.
         
         In such cases, the total days on deposit will be returned to the participating members at the time of dissolution and credited to their personal sick leave accumulation in proportion to the number of days each has contributed. Days returned and credited to an individual will be rounded to the nearest one half (1/2) hour or equivalent.
   2. A bank member may cancel their membership at any time upon written notification to the trustees. Cancellation will take effect within sixty (60) days of receipt of written notification. Assessed sick leave days will be NON REFUNDABLE upon cancellation of membership and NON TRANSFERABLE upon re employment at another TBR institution or area school, University of Tennessee, or other state agency.
   3. Members of the bank will be eligible to make application to the bank for sick leave only after having been a member of the bank for thirty (30) calendar days.
   4. A participant will not receive any sick leave from the bank until after having exhausted all accumulated compensatory, sick, and annual leave.
   5. Initial grants of sick bank leave shall not exceed the hourly equivalent of twenty (20) consecutive days for which the applicant would have otherwise lost pay. Subsequent grants of sick bank leave shall not exceed the hourly equivalents of sixty (60) days in any fiscal year, or up to a maximum of ninety (90) days for any one illness or injury, as described below.
      1. A member is limited to a maximum of ninety (90) days from the sick leave bank as the result of any one personal illness, injury, accident, disability, medical condition, quarantine or a condition related to, resulting from, or recurring from a previously diagnosed condition for which the bank granted sick leave. Grants from the sick leave bank shall not exceed ninety (90) days within a twelve (12) month period. The initial twelve (12) month period starts on the date the member’s sick leave grants first begin and extends twelve (12) months forward from that date. Grants from the sick leave bank terminate as of the date the member is released to return to work with or without restrictions.
      2. Grants for intermittent leave associated with recurring diagnosed illnesses are considered on a case-by-case basis.
   6. Applicants may submit requests for extension of sick bank leave grants before or after their prior grants expire, subject to the limitations noted above.
   7. A bank member may be eligible to receive sick leave that has been donated by other employees if s/he has made application for sick bank leave and the necessity for bank leave is substantiated by the trustees. Should sick bank leave be denied, the bank member shall be eligible to receive donations from other employees as provided in TBR Policy 5:01:01:15.
   8. In the event a member is physically or mentally unable to apply for sick bank leave, the immediate next of kin may make a request on their behalf. If a next of kin is unavailable, this request may be made by the legally appointed guardian or conservator or an individual acting under valid power of attorney.
   9. Grants of sick bank leave will not be contingent upon repayment of hours used or waiver of other employment benefits or rights.
   10. Grants of sick leave from the bank will not be made for:
       1. Elective surgery;
       2. Illness or death of a family member, except fo minor children;
       3. A period of time when Social Security, state sponsored retirement benefits, or Board of Claims benefits are being received;
       4. Family medical leave (for family members other than the employee) as defined by federal law;
       5. Pregnancy
   11. A member will relinquish bank benefits upon:
       1. Termination of employment;
       2. Retirement;
       3. Cancellation of participation;
       4. Refusal or inability to honor assessments;
       5. Leave of absence in a non-pay status for reasons other than illness, injury, or disability
   12. Employees who are granted sick bank leave will continue to accrue sick and annual leave and service credit for retirement and longevity purposes during the time they are on sick bank leave. Also, they will earn credit for any holidays that occur during the period they are receiving sick bank leave.
   13. To maintain an adequate reserve of usable days based on total membership and projected need, the trustees may make additional assessments under the following provisions:
       1. In the month of September if the sick bank balance is less than 120 days, an assessment will be made during October, the annual enrollment period.
       2. When at any given time the sick bank balance drops below an established minimum balance, an assessment will be made. The anticipated inaugural minimal balance is the hourly equivalent of forty (40) days.
       3. When an assessment is made, all members will be assessed the same amount of sick leave hours. These assessments will be limited to a minimum of the hourly equivalent of one (1) day and a maximum of the hourly equivalent of three (3) days
   14. Following the initial membewrship assessment, additional voluntary donations of sick leave hours are not permitted, except as provided in 2(g) and 2(m), above. 
2.  Procedures
   1. A sick bank member must turn in both of the following to the leave administrator* within thirty (30) calendar days of the first date bank usage is requested. Requests for sick bank leave without required documentation will not be accepted.
      1. A properly completed Sick Leave Bank Request form.
      2. A certificate of condition from a state certified physician verifying the nature of the illness or injury and the inability of the employee to work.
   2. The leave administrator will ensure that the employee in question has in fact exhausted all available compensatory, sick, and annual leave. The leave administrator will then forward the request to the trustees. The trustees will do the following:
      1. Notify the bank member’s supervisor.
      2. Approve or reject the request within ten (10) calendar days of its receipt.
      3. Send signed copies of the request to the bank member and leave administrator.
   3. Leave administrator will process all approved requests within five (5) working days of their receipt.
   4. The office of Human Resources will maintain documentation for audit purposes.
      
      *The leave administrator is the Payroll Coordinator.

 

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Divisional Review Responsibilities Checklist: Human Resources