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ylkon Deschutes County Administrative Policy No. HR -14
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LEAVE POLICY
STATEMENT OF POLICY
It is the policy of Deschutes County to provide paid leave to employees for vacation and sick time
and to require that employees responsibly manage their leave.
APPLICABILITY
This policy applies to all regular County employees that accrue leave. Departments may adopt
stricter leave policies that are consistent with this policy. In the event of a conflict between this
policy and a collective bargaining agreement, the terms of the collective bargaining agreement shall
prevail.
POLICY AND PROCEDURE
General
Time management leave is a combined leave bank for vacation and sick leave. The program is
designed to eliminate abuses of sick leave while rewarding employees for faithful attendance.
Employees are encouraged to maintain a reasonable leave balance in the event of an illness.
Employees who are ill are encouraged to use leave to become well and to prevent spread of the
illness to co-workers (if applicable). A supervisor may require that an employee with an illness
leave the workplace. A decision to send a sick employee home must be based on observable
symptoms and behaviors that lead a reasonable person to conclude that the employee is unable to
perform their basic job duties or presents a threat of infection to co-workers or the
public. Supervisors should consider the seriousness of the illness (for example, a common cold
generally would not be included) and the relative risk to the work group. If the employee disagrees
with the supervisor's assessment, the County may require the employee to visit urgent care. If the
employee receives documentation from the urgent care physician approving an immediate return to
work, the County shall pay for the urgent care visit and the time associated with the urgent care visit
shall be counted as time worked.
Procedure
Scheduled Leave
• The County shall make reasonable efforts to grant requests for leave, but shall have no
obligation to do so, except for FMLA/OFLA qualifying leave and other protected leaves as
defined in Chapter 3.36 of the Personnel Rules.
• Scheduled leave includes vacations, personal appointments, and other leave that is
requested in advance of the leave. Employees are required to request scheduled time off
from their supervisor at least one work day in advance. Department operations may require
more notice depending on the amount of leave requested and to maintain minimum staffing
levels. Employees must confirm that their time off has been approved prior to taking time
off.
Policy # HR -14, Leave Policy
• Supervisors shall only approve scheduled leave for hours that are currently in the
employee's leave bank (leave banks are credited with that month's leave at the beginning of
the month, as reflected on the employee's time sheet). Leave accrued in the month is
available to be used anytime during the month. However, supervisors shall not approve
scheduled leave contingent upon future accumulation/credit to the leave bank.
Leave Without Pay
• Leave without pay is discouraged and may not be requested or granted until all accrued
leave, including compensatory time, has been exhausted.
• Leave without pay shall only be used in situations such as the death of an immediate
family member (as defined in ORS 659A), a personal or family medical emergency (as
defined in County Policy HR -12, Family and Medical Leave), or an extreme hardship
(such as an employee that has severe fire damage to their residence). A department
head may grant a leave of absence without pay up to 30 calendar days (or up to 90 days
when contained in an applicable collective bargaining agreements). Leave without pay for
periods in excess of 30 days must be approved by the County Administrator — except for
FMLA/OFLA qualifying leave. Factors that will be considered for leave without pay are
the nature of the request, the employee's previous leave use history, relevant discipline (if
applicable), probationary status, and workload.
• Except in cases of FMLA/OFLA qualifying leave, an employee on leave without pay for
more than 40 hours in a pay period shall be required to pay a pro -rated portion of their full
health insurance premium. Employees on leave without pay status shall only accrue paid
leave on a pro -rated basis for actual paid hours during the pay period.
Unscheduled Leave
• Employees are responsible for regular attendance at their jobs, per Chapter 3.20 of the
Personnel Rules. Excessive unscheduled absences create a burden on the other members of
the work team and can negatively impact service to our customers.
• Unscheduled leave is any non -qualifying FMLA/OFLA leave (as defined in Administrative
Policy HR -12, Family and Medical Leave Policy) that is not approved in advance.
Unscheduled leave is most often related to an employee or a family member becoming ill,
but it also includes unexpected events that result in an absence. If an employee is required
to leave work due to an illness, the incident shall be considered unscheduled leave.
Supervisors are responsible for closely monitoring unscheduled leave.
• Supervisors have the discretion to waive an incident due to extenuating circumstances.
• Supervisors may require documentation from a health care provider for any unscheduled
leave equal to or greater than three consecutive regular work shifts.
• Inappropriate or excessive use of unscheduled leave may be cause for disciplinary action.
Inappropriate use includes feigning illness, deceitful use of sick leave, or failure to provide
requested documentation for an absence. Excessive unscheduled leave is defined as seven
occurrences during a rolling twelve month period. FMLA/OFLA qualifying leave shall
not be included in calculating excessive unscheduled leave.
• An employee who takes excessive unscheduled leave, as defined above, may be required to
provide documentation of the reason for any additional unscheduled leave of any length of
time within a 12 month rolling period.
• For Performance Evaluations, an employee must have no more than six unscheduled leave
occurrences, as defined above, to receive a "Meets Standards" on the Attendance factor.
Policy # HR -14, Leave Policy
• An absence of more than one day for the same reason is considered one occurrence. If the
days are not consecutive, a doctor's note may be requested to establish that the absences are
linked.
Approved by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners (((((date)))))).
Dave Kanner
County Administrator
Policy # HR -I4, Leave Policy