What is the Sick Leave Pool and how do I join it?

Sick Leave Pool Overview

The purpose of the sick leave pool is to help protect the employee from loss of income due to a catastrophic illness, disability, or injury. All full-time employees earn sick leave credit, which in most cases should be sufficient for their needs. However, there may arise extraordinary circumstances where an employee exhausts his/her earned sick leave. This could especially occur for an employee who has not been at the College long enough to build a large sick leave balance to protect himself/herself. The sick leave pool provides a way for the many to protect the very few in a time of great and special need.

The sick leave pool is not to be utilized for routine illness or injury requiring absence of short duration. Members of the sick leave pool are expected to use diligence in the management of their own earned sick leave.

Membership

Participation in the sick leave pool is voluntary.

Enrollment in the sick leave pool shall be available to any full-time employee of the College who has at least one year of full-time service to the College and has an accrued sick leave balance of at least six days. After this time, employees will be able to participate only by enrolling during an annual open enrollment period. This enrollment period will coincide with the annual enrollment for our health/life program. These dates may vary from year to year. Enrollment is complete when an Application for Membership in the Sick Leave Pool is completed and filed in the Human Resources Office.

A member can discontinue participation in the pool at any time by notifying the Human Resources Office in writing. Such an employee would be eligible to re-enroll twelve months after the date of cancellation, subject to the conditions above.

Contributions to the Sick Leave Pool

Upon enrollment in the pool, each member will make a contribution of eight hours of sick leave from his/her personal sick leave balance. Each fiscal year all members shall make an automatic annual contribution of four hours until the sick leave pool balance reaches two thousand hours.

Whenever the balance in the pool falls below three hundred and twenty hours, all members shall make an automatic contribution of two hours subject to the following conditions:

• The maximum number of automatic contributions in any twenty-month period shall be two. If replenishment is necessary and two automatic contributions have already been made in the past twelve months, then each member shall have the opportunity to either make a two hour contribution and thereby remain in the pool, or discontinue participation in the pool. This choice shall be in writing.
• A member who does not have a balance of at least two hours of earned sick leave shall have the two hours deducted from the next earned sick leave. This deduction shall have precedence over any other deduction from earned leave sick.
• A member who is currently withdrawing leave from the pool shall have his/her contribution waived.
• Contributions to the sick leave pool are final. An individual who chooses to discontinue participation in the pool may not withdraw contributed sick leave.
• Withdrawal of Leave from Sick Leave Pool: For a member to make a withdrawal of leave from the sick leave pool, all of the following conditions must be satisfied:
  • A. The individual must be a member of the sick leave pool.
  • B. A “Request to Withdrawal Leave” form must be completed. This form shall require a description of the illness, disability or injury and must be accompanied by a physician’s statement which supports the description, certifies inability to work, and provides an estimated time for return to work. The applicant must sign an authorization for release of any relevant information from physicians, clinics, hospitals, and/or insurance companies.
  • C. There shall be no withdrawal of leave from the sick leave pool until twenty consecutive workdays have been missed due to illness/disability/injury described in the “Request to Withdrawal Leave” form.
  • D. There shall be no withdrawal of leave from the sick leave pool until all of the applicant’s earned sick leave has been depleted.
  • E. The request must be approved by the Sick Leave Pool Committee.
  • F. The maximum number of days that can be withdrawn from the sick leave pool by any one individual in any one contractual/fiscal year is sixty.
  • G. The Sick Leave Pool Committee can request additional information at any time and can terminate withdrawal of leave from the pool at any time if not convinced that continued absence from work is necessary.