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Policy 303 Sick Leave (03/03)
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| Date Issued: 10/80 Date Revised: 03/03 Sick leave is provided by the University for the income protection of employees when they must take time away from work for medical reasons. Sick leave may also be used for anyone who resides in the same household as the employee. Sick leave accrual for bi-weekly paid employees is maintained in the computerized Payroll/Personnel (HURS) system. For monthly paid employees the records are kept by the individual's department. Regular full-time employees and 3/12 hour shift employees accrue sick leave at the rate of ten days per year. Prior to August 1, 2001, the maximum amount of sick leave an employee could accrue was 225 days. Effective August 1, 2001, State Senate Bill 91 removed the 225 days cap on sick leave. The accrual rate for sick leave benefits for faculty with nine-month appointments is 7.5 days for each 9 months of service under their regular appointment. Nine-month faculty working under a full-time appointment with UAB during the summer may accrue an additional 2.5 days of sick leave. Regular part-time biweekly employees accrue on a prorated basis based on hours paid during each pay period. Part-time regular monthly paid employees accrue on a proration based on their assigned FTE. Sick leave is not available to be used until the completion of the initial six-months probationary period. Credit is given retroactively to the initial date of regular employment. To be eligible for sick leave benefits, employees must notify their department heads or supervisors of illness as early as possible in advance of their scheduled time of duty. They should describe the nature of the illness and the expected time of return to work. Hospital employees are required to give eight hours notice when possible and to complete a Sick Leave Claim Form when desiring to apply for sick leave benefits. Other areas may also require completion of the Sick Leave Claim Form. Except during hospitalization or lengthy convalescence, supervisors should be informed daily of the employee's progress and expected date of return to work. Sick leave normally will be paid for the first day without a physician's statement. Exceptions may be made, however, in cases of suspected abuse of sick leave. Physician certification may be required for absences in excess of one day. Any employee having an absence of one or more days in each of three consecutive months may be requested to submit a physician's certification before further sick pay can be authorized. Holidays occurring during paid sick leave will be paid as holiday time and not as sick time. Illness or injury during vacation will not be considered for paid sick benefits. Also, if UAB is closed for emergency purposes (for example, bad weather) during the time an employee is using sick time, those days will still be charged to sick time. UAB allows sick leave to be taken for regularly scheduled visits to the dentist, physician, or optometrist. Employees must inform their supervisors well in advance of such appointments. If emergency work problems arise, employees may be required to cancel appointments. Supervisors should give as much warning as possible, however, to avoid cancellation penalties for the employee. Except in the case of approved leave of absence, supervisors may require that all absences be charged to vacation after all available sick leave has been used or in the case of personal requests for time off. Except in cases of approved leave, absence without pay can be viewed as excessive absenteeism. State law allows unused accrued sick leave to be converted to creditable service for service retirement purposes. Teachers' Retirement will certify no more than a maximum of twelve sick leave days per year. Since excess, unused vacation can be converted to sick leave under UAB policy at the end of each calendar year rather than being forfeited, it is possible for UAB employees to receive such service credit for more than the ten days of annual sick leave currently provided by UAB policy to eligible employees. See Policy 310 for additional information. When accepting a position at UAB after being employed with another Teachers' Retirement System participating employer, an employee may transfer any unused accrued sick leave days to UAB. This policy does not apply where a break in service has occurred. The Teachers' Retirement System employer from which the employee has separated must certify and forward the sick leave balance to UAB. It is the responsibility of the affected employee to ensure that the proper documentation is received by UAB. After employment with UAB, the employee will accrue sick leave according to UAB’s sick leave policy. The funding and/or liability for such accruals will become the obligation of UAB. Under certain circumstances, UAB employees may voluntarily donate, or receive, sick leave days under the sick leave donation policy. This policy is applicable to UAB employees, including faculty, who are eligible to accrue sick leave based on their employment category. The donated sick leave may be used only for an employee's personal catastrophic illness or injury. SICK LEAVE DONATION POLICY October 1, 2006 For complete text of this policy, see: Sick Leave Donation Policy |
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