accumulated sick leave

[ronin]

If an employee is laid off and has accumulated a significant amount of sick leave does he/she lose it or is there some regulation requiring the employer to compensate the employee for it?

[freebird5825]

Private sector ?
Non-union?
What state?
I would suggest going to your state Department of Labor web site and looking that one up.

[ziggy29]

Depends on company policy and state law among other things.

I would suspect that in the private sector you would typically lose it all unless state law or a collective bargaining agreement required otherwise. Public sector employees (on the rare occasion of being laid off) are more likely to receive compensation for unused PTO, but even that could vary depending on state law.

[ronin]

I think I'm screwed. California labor law talks about accumulated sick leave when retiring due to disability, but otherwise it seems to be dependent on collective bargaining or few other specific conditions being met. I could transfer them to my full time employer (public school district) if they would take it. They won't. My full time employer pays buys unused sick days back. My part time adult school job that I've lost doesn't. The retirement system will take unused sick leave and count it as years of service, but only from the primary employer. I don't think I can use up 14 yrs of leave (never took a day off) in the month remaining til the end of the semester. I was hoping it was like vacation time, where they have to pay it. Seems it isn't. Oh well.

[FIREd]

When I worked for a major state university under contract, I was not compensated for the unused sick leave I had accumulated. But I was able to gift it to fellow employees who, for health reasons, had run out of sick leave and needed more.

Now, in the private sector, I get 4 weeks a year of paid sick and/or vacation time. In case of a layoff, I receive financial compensation for up to 280 hours of unused sick/vacation time.

[W2R]

I am a federal employee on the FERS retirement system (the "new" one that has been required for any employee starting federal employment since the 1980's).

As of today, our sick leave simply vaporizes and vanishes upon separation. There is a bill in the works right now that would give us some small compensation. It was passed by the House this spring, and as far as I know, there it sits. Bills such as have been initiated every several years but in the past have stalled out partway through the process. So, I'll believe it when I see it!

Federal employees on the old CSRS retirement system get an increase in time served, for pension purposes, from unused sick leave.

Those employed in private industry should check with their company for retirement information such as the question of what happens to sick leave.

[LoftyNotions]

At the MegaCorp I currently work for (34 more days, but who's counting) we can only accumulate a maximum of 22 days in a running year. If we need more sick leave it is at the manager's discretion.

We don't get paid for any of it upon termination.

Larry

[ziggy29]

My employer doesn't even have a formal sick leave policy. The policy is simply: if you're sick with a short-term illness, just tell your manager and don't abuse it. The manager tracks the sick leave and you enter it on your timesheet, but there's no predefined number of days given.

I checked with my wife's new job with the school district. It looks like they could get *some* credit for unused sick leave at retirement but at a reduced rate per day. Alternatively, if there is a "sick leave pool" in place they could donate the days there.

[ronin]

We have a sick leave bank at my primary job, but I'm not giving away 1.5 yrs of credit towards yrs of service for my retirement next yr. The part time employer is, shall we say, slightly less enlightened and efficient about, well, everything, and we can't donate it. I'd like to just never show up again but have this stupid thing about caring about my students and this other stupid thing about pride in my professional conduct. There's a lady here at my day job who, with 4 weeks left til summer decided she wanted to take an Alaskan cruise now, so she just left on vacation. We don't have substitutes. There are seniors trying to graduate. I'm at a loss to understand. Well, knowing her, I'm not, but you get my drift.

[Leonidas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronin I think I'm screwed. California labor law talks about accumulated sick leave when retiring due to disability, but otherwise it seems to be dependent on collective bargaining or few other specific conditions being met.

I'm fairly sure it's not covered under Federal law either. Brat is pretty knowledgeable on labor law, she might look in or you could PM her. She helped me with some issues I had a couple of years ago on accumulated comp time from my former employer.

My former governmental employer had bizarre policies on accumulating time and what you could do with it. It varied, depending on the budget, who was running City Hall, and the prevailing political opinion any one year. Some years it really sucked and other years it was very generous. Luckily I retired during one of the really generous periods and got to take 27 years worth of accumulated leave and take a 2 1/2 year paid vacation at the end of my employment.