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603 Sick Leave
The City of Grapevine provides paid sick leave to eligible regular full-time and regular
part-time employees for periods of temporary absence due to illness, non-job-related
injury, serious health condition or health fitness impairment to include the birth of the
employee’s child.
If unable to report to work due to illness, injury, serious health condition or health
fitness impairment to include the birth of the employee’s child, probationary, part-
time, seasonal and casual employees must contact their supervisor before the start
of each scheduled work day/shift or as soon thereafter as practical to report the
reason for their absence. However, part-time, seasonal and casual employees will
not receive paid sick leave.
.01 All employees, including non-certified police under a 12-month probationary period,
are eligible to take sick leave after six (6) months of employment. If an employee’s
initial probationary period is extended beyond six months, the Department Head may
notify Human Resources to delay accruals until the end of the extended probationary
period.
.02 An eligible employee may use sick leave for an injury, illness or serious health
condition sustained by the employee or to a family member who resides in the
employee’s household or for a health fitness impairment to include the birth of the
employee’s child. For common law marriage, the employee will need to submit a
common law affidavit. Sick leave cannot be taken in less than 15-minute increments,
as this is the smallest increment of time recorded for timekeeping purposes.
.03 If sick leave is being taken for an FMLA qualifying event, the requirements of the
City’s FMLA policy must be met.
.04 All regular full-time and regular part-time employees who are unable to report to work
due to illness, non-job related injury, serious health condition or health fitness
impairment to include the birth of the employee’s child, must notify their supervisor
before the start of each scheduled work day/shift or as soon thereafter as practical.
When reporting an absence, the employee should advise their supervisor of the need
to receive paid sick leave. If using sick leave for FMLA, employees must contact their
supervisor and Risk Management in accordance with the FMLA policy.
.05 Use of sick leave accruals cannot be changed to use any other paid leave accruals
(vacation, personal holiday, holiday saved, compensatory time) to cover any previous
absence in order to preserve the employee’s Sick Leave Buy Back benefit.
Additionally, the use of FMLA sick leave accruals cannot be changed once the
employee has elected accruals to be used for the duration of the FMLA qualifying
event. Sick leave may be administratively changed by the FMLA administrator in
order to correct errors in timekeeping or if the reason for the absence does not qualify
for the use of sick leave.
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.06 If a City department, division or unit is open for business and the employee is required
to work on a City designated holiday but the employee is sick on the holiday, the
employee shall be paid both the holiday and sick leave and the employee’s sick leave
accruals will be charged.
.07 When sick leave accruals are exhausted, employees must use all other paid accruals
before unpaid leave may begin.
.08 A physician’s statement is not required unless an employee is absent for more than
three consecutive work days/shifts, working an intermittent schedule or a reduced
schedule, or if a statement is requested by the supervisor. The physician's statement
should indicate the following:
(A) date the medical condition began and the probable duration
(B) estimate of time the employee will be unable to perform work of any kind, or
(C) whether it is necessary to take intermittent leave, or work a reduced schedule
(part-time) and the duration of such schedules
(D) if the employee is needed to care for the family member residing in the
employee’s household and the duration of the leave
(E) if the medical condition qualified as a "serious health condition" as described
in the Family and Medical Leave Act.
.09 Employees returning to work after an absence of more than ten consecutive work
days/shifts due to their health fitness impairment shall undergo a drug screen and a
physical assessment, if applicable, to ensure that the employee has fully recovered
or that reasonable working restrictions are set out to prevent an injury.
.10 Sick leave is calculated on the employee's base pay rate at the time of absence and
will not include any special forms of compensation.
.11 An employee using sick pay is not permitted to perform outside work for
compensation prior to returning from sick leave and working his/her scheduled shift.
An employee found to be in conflict with this policy shall be subject to the loss of the
paid sick pay (in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act regarding the docking
of pay for exempt employees) and subject to appropriate disciplinary action including
termination of employment.
.12 Sick leave shall not be transferable between employees.
.13 At no time is sick leave compensable upon separation from the City.
.14 Sick leave shall not apply in incidents caused by willful misconduct, purposely self-
inflicted, while on leave without pay, absence without leave, or acquired as a result
of another job.
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.15 Sick leave for eligible employees shall accrue as follows:
(A) Firefighters on 24 hour shift 180 hours
(B) All other employees 120 hours
.16 Maximum carryover totals shall be as follows:
(A) Firefighters on 24-hour shift 780 hours
(B) All other employees 520 hours
.17 Firefighters temporarily assigned to eight (8) hour shifts will continue to accrue sick
leave the same as Firefighters assigned to 24 hour shifts. However, if Firefighters
are temporarily assigned to eight (8) hour shifts and use sick leave during this period,
they will be charged 12 hours of sick leave.
.18 All regular part-time employees shall accrue sick leave in proportion to hours
budgeted for their position with maximum monthly accrual never to exceed the
proportionate amount earned by a regular full-time employee.
.19 All current employees who are currently accruing sick leave at a rate greater than
stated herein shall continue to accrue at their current rate.
.20 Regular full-time and regular part-time employees must be in pay status for more
than half the standard number of paid days during the month for their job in order
to earn sick accruals. Regular full-time and regular part-time employees not in pay
status for more than half the standard number of paid days for their job will not
earn sick leave accruals. However, employees changing from regular full-time or
regular part-time to part-time, seasonal, or casual status, or when separating,
retiring, or in the event of death, shall earn sick leave accruals even if in pay status
for less than half the standard number of paid days during the month for their job.
.21 Exempt employees may be subject to a pay reduction for time not worked because
no leave accruals are available or all accruals have been exhausted. Reductions to
pay will only be made when exempt employees are in an unpaid status for a full
workday, not when they are in pay status for any portion of their regular workday.
This reduction will not affect the employee’s FLSA exempt status.
Revised 05/05/2014
Revised 06/09/2019
Revised 06/16/2021