Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1984 [PAGE 481]

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472

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[January 19

leave for academic employees, which is granted in bulk on the basis of service years, should be prorated for the current appointment year. To deal with these immediate questions, I a m recommending for your action the adoption of the following three Interim Guidelines: 1. Sick leave for an eligible employee (defined as one who is eligible to be a participant in SURS) taken subsequent to January 1, 1984, shall be charged first to the employee's available pre-January 1, 1984, sick leave credits. However, upon the filing of a request by an employee, such sick leave will be charged to his or her post-January 1, 1984, sick leave credits if the employee wishes to preserve maximum service credit under the provisions of S U R S . 2. The present rules relating to sick leave for academic employees do not adapt well to the new legislation. They "grant" 15 work days of noncumulative disability leave for each year of service and make these employees "eligible" for extended disability leave of an additional 10 work days in each service year, the unused portion of which is cumulative to a maximum of 180 work days. The University has interpreted these rules as providing 25 work days of sick leave for each service year, up to 10 of which may be accumulated and carried forward, if unused, with a maximum accumulation of 180 work days. Since the service years of academic employees are not uniform and January 1, 1984, is a significant date under the new legislation, the following Interim Guideline is recommended for the current contract (or service) year. 1 15 work days of sick leave (that which is not cumulative) will be deemed to have been earned prior to January 1, 1984, and 10 work days of sick leave (which is cumulative) will be deemed to have been earned on or after January 1, 1984.2 This Interim Guideline will preserve the full 25 sick leave days available to eligible employees for the current contract year and will not diminish the carry-over provisions for continuing employees. It is not necessary to make a similar allocation for sick leave earned by nonacademic employees since they earn sick leave on the basis of each hour worked in pay status (exclusive of overtime). 3. Public Act 83-976 also deals with sick leave and other benefits of State employees who transfer from one employing agency to another and provides that to the extent that they are unpaid, these benefits accompany the transferring employee to the receiving agency in accordance with the rules of the receiving agency. As an Interim Guideline it is proposed that all accumulated and unpaid sick leave of employees so transferring to the University of Illinois will be deemed to have been earned prior to January 1, 1984. This will preserve the retirement system service credit for the transferring employee and at the same time eliminate the possibility of an employee receiving double cash payments for post-January 1, 1984, accumulated and unused sick leave since the transferring employee already will have received a cash payment from the agency of origin for one-half of his or her post-January 1, 1984, sick leave accumulation. Consultation Regarding Revision of Sick Leave Policy The effective application of Public Act 83-976 suggests the need for an early review and refinement of University sick leave policies. During the balance of this academic year, I am asking that appropriate consultation be initiated with the

1 A "contract year" is defined as a 9-month or 12-month appointment period beginning with the academic year (normally August 21 at the Urbana-Champaign campus and September 1 at. the Chicago campus). * III determining- sick-leave entitlements . under existing General Rules for this group of employees, a service year shall be coextensive with the contract year. When a service year, including the first, for both a new and continuing employee is shorter than the contract year, the 15 noncumulative sick leave workdays and the 10 extended sick leave workdays will be prorated accordingly.