H. B. 2135
(By Delegates Staton and Browning)
[Introduced
February 10, 2005
; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-10
and §18A-4-10c of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
all relating to mandating
that county boards of education establish personal leave banks
which allow board employees to donate personal leave to be
used by fellow board employees who are absent from work
because of accident or illness, or who are absent while acting
as care givers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-10
and §18A-4-10c
of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.
§18A-4-10. Personal leave for illness and other causes; leave
banks; substitutes.
At the beginning of the employment term, any full-time
employee of a county board of education shall be entitled annually to at least one and one-half days personal leave for each
employment month or major fraction thereof in the employee's
employment term. Unused leave shall be accumulative without
limitation and shall be transferable within the state. A change in
job assignment during the school year shall in no way affect the
employee's rights or benefits.
A regular full-time employee who is absent from assigned
duties due to accident, sickness, death in the immediate family, or
life threatening illness of the employee's spouse, parents or
child, or other cause authorized or approved by the board, shall be
paid the full salary from his regular budgeted salary appropriation
during the period which
such the employee is absent, but not to
exceed the total amount of leave to which
such the employee is
entitled:
Provided, That each
such employee shall be permitted
three days of
such leave annually, which may be taken without
regard to the cause for the absence, except that personal leave
without cause may not be taken on consecutive work days unless
authorized or approved by the employee's principal or immediate
supervisor, as the case may be:
Provided, however, That notice of
such a leave day shall be given to the employee's principal or
immediate supervisor, as the case may be, at least twenty-four
hours in advance, except that in the case of sudden and unexpected
circumstances,
such the notice shall be given as soon as reasonably
practicable; however, the use of
such the day may be denied if, at the time notice is given, either fifteen percent of the employees
or three employees, whichever is greater, under the supervision of
the principal or immediate supervisor, as the case may be, have
previously notified the principal or immediate supervisor of their
intention to use that day for
such leave:
Provided further, That
such leave shall not be used in connection with a concerted work
stoppage or strike. Where the cause for leave had its origin prior
to the beginning of the employment term, the employee shall be paid
for time lost after the start of the employment term. If an
employee should use personal leave which the employee has not yet
accumulated on a monthly basis and subsequently leave the
employment, the employee shall be required to reimburse the board
for the salary or wages paid to him for
such the unaccumulated
leave.
Prior to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-nine, the state board shall establish rules, effective on
said date, to restrict the payment of personal leave benefits and
the charging of personal leave time used to an employee receiving
a workers' compensation benefit from a claim filed against and
billed to the employee's board. If an employee is awarded
such the
benefit,
such the employee shall receive personal leave
compensation only to the extent
such that compensation is required,
when added to the workers' compensation benefit, to equal the
amount of compensation regularly paid
such the employee. If personal leave compensation equal to the employee's regular pay is
paid prior to the award of the workers' compensation benefit,
such
the amount which, when added to the benefit, is in excess of the
employee's regular pay shall be deducted from the employee's
subsequent pay. The employee's accrued personal leave days shall be
charged only for
such the days as equal the amount of personal
leave compensation required to compensate the employee at the
employee's regular rate of pay.
The board may establish reasonable rules for reporting and
verification of absences for cause; and if any error in reporting
absences should occur, it shall have authority to make necessary
salary adjustments in the next pay after the employee has returned
to duty or in the final pay if the absence should occur during the
last month of the employment term.
A county board of education
may shall establish a personal
leave bank or banks to which employees may contribute no more than
two days of personal leave per school year:
Provided, That such
bank or banks be established either jointly or separately for both
professional personnel and school service personnel and that a bank
be available to all school personnel.
Such The personal leave bank
shall be established and operated pursuant to rules adopted by the
county board:
Provided, however, That
such rules may limit the
maximum number of days used by an employee, shall require that
leave bank days be used only by an active employee with less than five days accumulated personal leave who is absent from work due to
accident or illness of
such the employee, and shall prohibit the
use of
such the days with the extension of insurance coverage
pursuant to section twelve, article sixteen, chapter five of this
code.
Such The rules shall require that contributions shall
reduce, to the extent of
such the contribution, the number of
personal leave days to which an employee is entitled by this
section:
Provided further, That
such the contribution shall not
reduce personal leave days without cause to which an employee is
entitled. No employee may be compelled to contribute to
such a
personal leave bank.
When an allowable absence does not directly affect the
instruction of the pupils or when a substitute employee may not be
required because of the nature of the work and the duration of the
cause for the allowable absence of the regular employee, the
administration, subject to board approval, may use its discretion
as to the need for a substitute where limited absence may prevail.
If funds in any fiscal year, including transfers, are
insufficient to pay the full cost of substitutes for meeting the
provisions of this section, the remainder shall be paid on or
before the thirty-first day of August from the budget of the next
fiscal year.
Any board of education shall have authority to supplement
such
the leave provisions in any manner it may deem advisable in accordance with applicable rules of the state board and the
provisions of this chapter and chapter eighteen of this code.
§18A-4-10c. Personal leave banks for care givers.
(a) For the purposes of this section:
(1) "Care giver" means any employee of a county board who:
(A) Is a spouse, child or parent of any employee who meets the
following qualifications:
(i) He or she is an employee of the same county board of
education as the care giver; and
(ii) He or she currently is eligible to receive benefits from
the personal leave bank established in section ten of this article;
or
(B) Is a parent of a dependent child who is suffering from a
catastrophic illness or injury;
(2) "Catastrophic illness or injury" means a medical or
physical condition that incapacitates a family member of the care
giver and results in the care giver being required to take time off
from work as defined by the rules of the board to care for the
family member.
(b) A county board of education
may shall establish a personal
leave bank for care givers which is separate from any personal
leave bank as defined in section ten of this article. The personal
leave bank shall be operated pursuant to rules adopted by the
county board which shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) An employee may contribute no more than two days of
personal leave per school year;
(2) The bank shall be established either jointly or separately
for both professional personnel and school service personnel and
shall be available to all school personnel;
(3) The rules may limit the maximum number of days used by a
care giver;
(4) Where the care giver is caring for an absent employee as
defined in paragraph (A), subdivision (1), subsection (a) of this
section, the rules shall require that leave bank days be used only
by a care giver who is absent from work during the same time period
as the absent employee for whom care is being provided; and
(5) The rules shall require that the care giver is an active
employee with less than five days accumulated personal leave.
(c) The use of these days by the care giver for the extension
of insurance coverage pursuant to section twelve, article sixteen,
chapter five of this code is prohibited.
(d) Contributions shall reduce, to the extent of the
contribution, the number of personal leave days to which a
contributing employee is entitled by section ten of this article:
Provided, That the employee's contribution may not reduce the
number of entitled personal leave days without cause.
(e) No employee may be compelled to contribute to a personal leave bank.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate that county
boards of education establish personal leave banks which allow
board employees to donate personal leave to be used by fellow board
employees who are absent from work because of accident or illness,
or who are absent while acting as care givers. Current law gives
county boards of education the option of establishing personal
leave banks, but does not require it.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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