H. B. 2458
(By Delegates Dalton, Tucker and Hubbard)
[Introduced January 29, 1999; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section ten, article four, chapter
eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to school personnel
and personal leave; and changing the number of allowable
personal leave days without cause.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten, article four, chapter eighteen-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, 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 may 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,
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 five 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 the 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 the 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 may 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 for such the employee for the 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
this benefit, such the employee shall receive personal leave compensation only to the extent such the compensation is
required, when added to the workers' compensation benefit, to
equal the amount of compensation regularly paid such the
employee. If personal leave compensation equal to the employee's
regular pay is paid prior to the award of the workers'
compensation benefit, such amount which, when added to the
benefit, is in excess of the employee's regular pay shall must 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.
The board may establish reasonable rules for reporting and
verification of absences for cause; and if any error in reporting
absences should occur occurs, 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 occurs 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 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 the 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 The rules shall require that
contributions shall reduce, to the extent of such the
contribution, the number of personal leave days to which an
employee is entitled by this section: Provided further, That
such the contribution shall may not reduce personal leave days
without cause to which an employee is entitled. No employee may
be compelled to contribute to such the 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 the 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 increase the number of
personal leave days without cause from three to five.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.