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RSCC Policy PA-10-02; Formation and Operation of Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank

Roane State Community College
Policy Number: PA-10-02
Subject: Formation and Operation of Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank

Purpose: The purpose of the Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank is to provide emergency sick leave to members who have suffered a serious, unplanned illness or injury and who have exhausted all their personal sick leave, annual leave and compensatory leave, if applicable, in accordance with the TBR Policy 5.01.01.07, TBR Guideline P-061, and Roane State Community College policy, PA-10-02.

Establishment: The Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank was established when a group of 20 employees agreed to donate a specified number of accrued sick leave hours to a common pool and petitioned the college president who authorized the establishment of the Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank.

Trustees: The president of the college appointed five sick leave bank trustees upon receipt of the petition. It was determined that at least three of the appointees should be clerical and/or support staff, and two administrative staff.

Initial appointments were made as follows: two trustees to serve for one year, two trustees for two years and one trustee for three years. Thereafter, all appointments would be for three years. Trustees are eligible for reappointment. Any vacancy resulting from the expiration of a term, discontinuance of employment, retirement, death, resignation, or removal by the president of a trustee from the trustee role shall be filled immediately by appointment by the president. A chair shall be elected by the trustees and will serve a three-year term. Upon expiration of the chair’s term, the trustees will reappoint the current chair or appoint a new chair.

If a trustee has a need to request sick leave from the Bank, the trustee will recuse him/herself from the committee and the president will appoint an ad hoc member to serve in the trustee’s absence.

The trustees shall:

  1. Be responsible for the preparation of the sick leave bank plan of operation. The plan is subject to the president’s review.
  2. Administer the Bank and approve or reject requests for withdrawal of leave from the bank.
  3. Adopt reasonable rules for the assessment of hours by participants in order to maintain an adequate reserve of usable days for the Bank members. This reserve shall only be established through the assessment of Bank membership and shall maintain a positive balance at all times. The assessment shall be based upon total membership and projected potential need.

All actions by the trustees require three affirmative votes for approval.

All actions by the trustees must remain confidential. The trustees must abide by a confidentiality code that prohibits discussing any meeting, request, action, etc. outside of the committee members, except for those who have a legitimate need to access the information, e.g., human resources staff. Failure to maintain confidentiality will lead to immediate removal from the committee and may result in disciplinary action. A trustee must not engage in discussions with employees (outside the committee) that may lead to inference that a certain request would be approved. All questions to, or discussions with, a trustee should be referred to the committee chair for consideration by the trustees as a group.

Eligibility: Participation in the Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank is available to regular full-time and regular part-time, non-faculty, exempt and non-exempt employees whether serving in an academic, fiscal or modified fiscal year appointment.

During one of the two open enrollment periods, those employees eligible to participate will be assessed three days from their accrued sick leave and those days will then be transferred to the Bank. A personal sick leave balance of five days is required before being eligible to join.

Sick Leave Bank Plan

  1. Annual enrollment periods will be held in May and November.
  2. All eligible persons who elect to participate in the Bank shall be assessed an hourly equivalent of three days according to his/her employment classification. A beginning personal sick leave balance of five days is required to join.
  3. The necessity for subsequent assessments will be determined annually and shall only be conducted in order to maintain a positive minimum balance in the Bank. The trustees have determined that 2,000 hours shall be the minimum balance. Assessments will be limited to an hourly equivalent of one day minimum and three days maximum.
  4. An employee must have been a member of the Bank for sixty calendar days prior to applying for withdrawal of Sick Leave Bank hours.
  5. An employee must exhaust all accumulated sick leave, annual leave and compensatory leave prior to applying for sick leave from the Bank.
  6. Bank sick leave shall NOT be used for, and will not be approved for:
    1. Elective surgery (For purposes of the Sick Leave Bank, elective surgery is defined as a planned, non-emergency procedure.) Elective surgery may extend life or improve the quality of life and may even be required, such as in the case of an angioplasty. However, if the surgery can be scheduled in advance, whether at the patient's or surgeon's convenience, rather than needing to be performed immediately, it is considered elective.
    2. Illness or death of any member of the individual’s family.
    3. Board of Claims benefits (e.g. worker’s compensation). If a member sustains an on-the-job injury or illness, the member is first required to submit and receive a determination upon a worker’s compensation claim prior to requesting sick leave from the Bank.
    4. Routine maternity leave.
    5. A period during which the individual is receiving benefits from social security or a state-sponsored retirement or disability plan.

      The list above is not intended to be all-inclusive, but rather, examples of types of requests that would not be appropriate for Bank sick leave.

      Note: Any optional long-term disability insurance benefits shall have no effect on a member’s eligibility to request sick leave from the Bank.
  7. Initial grants of sick leave shall not exceed the hourly equivalent of twenty consecutive days for which the applicant would have otherwise lost pay. After receiving twenty consecutive days, the Bank member should explore all other options available to him/her. If the Bank member requests an extension, he/she must sign a statement which explains the available options (for example, worker’s compensation or disability insurance) or verify that he/she is ineligible to qualify for these options. Additional grants of Bank leave shall not exceed the hourly equivalent of sixty days for a total of eighty days in any fiscal year (July to June), or ninety total days for any one accident, illness, or recurring diagnosed illness.
  8. Primary consideration for requesting Bank sick leave will be given to those members on 100% medical leave. However, exceptions may be made for members who are on partial disability due to treatment-related leave. For example, should an employee be going through a treatment such as chemotherapy or physical therapy and require partial time off from work, they would be eligible for leave from the Bank. However, regular and/or follow up doctor’s visits will not count as partial disability and will not be considered for leave from the Bank. The employee requesting leave from the Bank for partial disability will need to provide, in advance, complete and proper documentation from their healthcare provider stating the treatment plan, the treatment schedule and the dates the employee is authorized to return to work, with or without restrictions.
  9. Employees with pre-existing illnesses are eligible for enrollment, but their grants of leave will be restricted to the hourly equivalent of thirty days during a fiscal year or the hourly equivalent of forty-five total days for any one pre-existing condition. Pre-existing shall mean a condition for which an employee received treatment or advice during the six month period prior to the effective date of initial Sick Leave Bank membership.
  10. Upon receipt of a request to draw upon the Bank, the trustees will examine the Bank member’s status and sick leave record. If there is an appearance of abuse, the trustees may deny the request. In the event an employee is denied the request due to evidence of abuse, the employee will be given the opportunity to appeal the denial to the committee by providing supporting evidence (in written form) which might clarify the employee’s sick leave history.
  11. Approved sick leave will run concurrently with FMLA leave for an eligible employee who has not already exhausted the 12 work-week entitlement.
  12. A bank member shall lose membership upon termination of employment, retirement or cancellation of Bank membership. The inability to honor the trustees assessments or going on leave of absence in a non-pay status will result in temporary loss of the right to withdraw Bank sick leave. This right will be restored upon transfer of the individual’s personal sick leave assessment to the bank, which must occur no later than one year from the date of the missed assessment. After one year, the member must rejoin the Bank. The member must donate, and the trustees must honor the donation, once the member’s sick leave balance reaches assessment level. Any prior member who wishes to re-join the Bank will be subject to the same conditions as new members.
  13. When a Bank member is physically or mentally unable to apply for Bank sick leave, the immediate next-of-kin may make the request for leave on his or her behalf. If there is no available next-of-kin, this request may be made by the legally appointed guardian, conservator, or an individual acting under valid power of attorney.
  14. A bank member may be eligible to receive sick leave which has been donated by other employees if he/she has made application for the Bank sick leave and the request has been denied due to Sick Leave Bank guidelines. See “Transfer of Sick Leave Between Employees” TBR Policy 5.01.01.15.
  15. A Bank member may cancel his or her membership at any time upon written notification to the trustee chairperson. Sick Leave Bank assessments are non-refundable and non-transferable to other state institutions. The effective date of the cancellation will be determined by the date of the request.
  16. Employees who are granted Bank sick leave shall continue to accrue sick leave and annual leave, and service credit for retirement and longevity purposes, during the time they are on Bank sick leave. They will also receive credit for any holidays that may occur during the Bank sick leave period. Any leave accrued during this time must be used before the employee can request additional leave from the Sick Leave Bank.
  17. Grants of Bank sick leave shall not be contingent upon repayment of hours used or waiver of other employment benefits or rights.
  18. All official forms and records pertaining to the Sick Leave Bank and formal minutes of the trustee’s meeting will be maintained in the trustee chairperson’s office. All records will be subject to audit by appropriate state officials.

Application Procedure to Receive Bank Hours: (All forms are located on the Human Resources web page.)

  1. Complete a Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank Request Form.
  2. Have the attending physician complete the Non-Faculty Sick Leave Bank Physician’s Certification Form.
  3. Submit the completed forms to your supervisor for approval and then to the human resource office for verification of hours. Attach a copy of your timesheet verifying your leave balances.
  4. Human Resources will forward the form and all attachments to the chairperson of the Sick Leave Bank.
  5. The chairperson will call a meeting and the trustees will make a decision within ten calendar days from the date the committee receives the request.
  6. An e-mail or letter will be sent as notification of the approval or denial of the time requested.

    The decision of the trustees shall not be appealed beyond that body.

Official Forms: (All forms are located on the Human Resources web page.)

  1. Enrollment Form
  2. Sick Leave Bank Request Form
  3. Notice of Assessment of Sick Leave Days
  4. Sick Leave Bank Physician’s Certification Form

Amendments: Amendments to these guidelines may be made by an affirmative vote of three trustees and approval by the president.

Dissolution of the Bank: The Sick Leave Bank shall be dissolved if Roane State Community College is closed or if the Bank membership falls below twenty individuals. Upon dissolution for insufficient membership, the total hours on deposit shall be returned to the participating members at the time of the dissolution and credited to their personal sick leave accumulation in proportion to the number of hours each has been assessed individually. If a member has withdrawn the equivalent of 22.5 or more hours of Bank sick leave, that member will not be credited with a proportion of the sick leave hours.

Revision History: 10/17/1996, 11/06/2006, 03/14/2007
TBR Policy Reference: 5.01.01.00
TBR Guideline Reference: P-061
Revision Date Effective: 03/14/2007
Revision Approval By: Gary Goff, President
Original Date Effective: 11/01/1989
Original Approval By: Sherry L. Hoppe, President
Office Responsible: Vice President for Business & Finance
Reviewed: 05/22/2017

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