H. B. 3085
(By Delegates Spencer, Skaff, Hunt, Wells,
Guthrie and Hatfield)
[Introduced March 12, 2009; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-10 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing males teachers to use
sick leave to attend prenatal care appointments with spouse.
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.
(a)
Personal Leave.--
(1) At the beginning of the employment term, any full-time
employee of a county board 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 accumulative without limitation and is transferable within the state. A change in job assignment during the school year does
not affect the employee's rights or benefits.
(2) A regular full-time employee who is absent from assigned
duties due to accident, sickness,
attending prenatal appointments
with spouse, 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 or her regular budgeted salary appropriation during the
period which the employee is absent, but not to exceed the total
amount of leave to which the employee is entitled.
(3) Each employee is permitted to use three days of leave
annually without regard to the cause for the absence. Personal
leave without cause may not be used on consecutive work days unless
authorized or approved by the employee's principal or immediate
supervisor, as appropriate. The employee shall give notice of
leave without cause to the principal or immediate supervisor at
least twenty-four hours in advance, except that in the case of
sudden and unexpected circumstances, notice shall be given as soon
as reasonably practicable. The principal or immediate supervisor
may deny use of the day 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, have previously given notice of their intention to use
that day for leave. Personal leave may not be used in connection with a concerted work stoppage or strike. Where the cause for
leave originated 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 uses personal leave which the
employee has not yet accumulated on a monthly basis and
subsequently leaves the employment, the employee is required to
reimburse the board for the salary or wages paid for the
unaccumulated leave.
(4) The State Board shall maintain a rule 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 county board
by which the person is employed. If an employee is awarded this
benefit, the employee shall receive personal leave compensation
only to the extent the compensation is required, when added to the
workers' compensation benefit, to equal the amount of compensation
regularly paid the employee. If personal leave compensation equal
to the employee's regular pay is paid prior to the award of the
workers' compensation benefit, 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 days as
equal the amount of personal leave compensation required to
compensate the employee at the employee's regular rate of pay.
(5) The county board may establish reasonable rules for
reporting and verification of absences for cause. If any error in
reporting absences occurs, the county board may make necessary
salary adjustments:
(A) In the next pay after the employee has returned to duty;
or
(B) In the final pay if the absence occurs during the last
month of the employment term.
(b)
Leave Banks.--
(1) Each county board shall establish a personal leave bank
that is available to all school personnel. The board may establish
joint or separate banks for professional personnel and school
service personnel. Each employee may contribute up to two days of
personal leave per school year. An employee may not be coerced or
compelled to contribute to a personal leave bank.
(2) The personal leave bank shall be established and operated
pursuant to a rule adopted by the county board. The rule:
(A) May limit the maximum number of days used by an employee;
(B) Shall limit the use of leave bank days to an active
employee with fewer than five days accumulated personal leave who
is absent from work due to accident or illness of the employee; and
(C) Shall prohibit the use of days to:
(i) Qualify for or add to service for any retirement system
administered by the state; or
(ii) Extend insurance coverage pursuant to section thirteen,
article sixteen, chapter five of this code.
(D) Shall require that each personal leave day contributed:
(i) Is deducted from the number of personal leave days to
which the donor employee is entitled by this section;
(ii) Is not deducted from the personal leave days without
cause to which a donor employee is entitled if sufficient general
personal leave days are otherwise available to the donor employee;
(iii) Is credited to the receiving employee as one full
personal leave day;
(iv) May not be credited for more or less than a full day by
calculating the value of the leave according to the hourly wage of
each employee; and
(v) May be used only for an absence due to the purpose for
which the leave was transferred. Any transferred days remaining
when the catastrophic medical emergency ends revert back to the
leave bank.
(3) The administration, subject to county board approval, may
use its discretion as to the need for a substitute where limited
absence may prevail, when an allowable absence does not:
(i) Directly affect the instruction of the students; or
(ii) Require a substitute employee because of the nature of
the work and the duration of the cause for the absence.
(4) 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 August 31 from the budget of the next fiscal year.
(5) A county board may supplement the leave provisions in any
manner it considers advisable in accordance with applicable rules
of the State Board and the provisions of this chapter and chapter
eighteen of this code.
NOTE: This bill shall allow male teachers to use sick leave to
attend prenatal care appointments with spouse.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.