H. B. 3239
(By Delegates Amores, Fleischauer and Marshall)
[Introduced February 23, 2007; referred to the
Committee on Education.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-10 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to including death of a permanent
household member to excused absences for full-time employees
of the county board of education.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-10 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted 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 is 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 is accumulative without limitation and shall be is 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,
including a permanent household member, 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 or her 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 is 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 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 this 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
is 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 is required to reimburse the
board for the salary or wages paid to him or her for such
any 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
benefit, such the employee shall receive personal leave
compensation only to the extent such this compensation is required,
when added to the workers' compensation benefit, to equal the
amount of compensation regularly paid such 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
is 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 has 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 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
the 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 A personal leave
bank shall be established and operated pursuant to rules adopted by
the county board: Provided, however, That such these 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 employee, and shall prohibit the use of such days with the extension of insurance coverage pursuant
to section twelve, article sixteen, chapter five of this code.
Such These rules shall require that contributions shall reduce, to
the extent of such any contribution, the number of personal leave
days to which an employee is entitled by this section: Provided
further, That such any contribution shall does 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 has authority to supplement
such leave provisions in any manner it may deem considers advisable
in accordance with applicable rules of the state board and the
provisions of this chapter and chapter eighteen of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
allow that a full-time
employee of a county board of education is excused from an absence
because of a death to a permanent household member
.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.