S-4798.1 _______________________________________________
THIRD SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5476
_______________________________________________
State of Washington 54th Legislature 1996 Regular Session
By Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Trade (originally sponsored by Senators Loveland, Winsley, Fraser, Haugen, Kohl, Wood, Drew, Bauer, Pelz, Prentice, Quigley, McAuliffe, Roach, Fairley, Franklin, Prince and Long)
Read first time 01/29/96.
AN ACT Relating to shared leave; amending RCW 41.04.660 and 41.04.665; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. RCW 41.04.660 and 1990 c 23 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
The
Washington state leave sharing program is hereby created. The purpose of the
program is to permit state employees, at no significantly increased cost to the
state of providing annual ((or)) leave, sick leave, or
personal holidays, to come to the aid of a fellow state employee who is
suffering from or has a relative or household member suffering from an
extraordinary or severe illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental
condition which has caused or is likely to cause the employee to take leave
without pay or terminate his or her employment.
Sec. 2. RCW 41.04.665 and 1990 c 23 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) An agency head may permit an employee to receive leave under this section if:
(a) The employee suffers from, or has a relative or household member suffering from, an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition which is of an extraordinary or severe nature and which has caused, or is likely to cause, the employee to:
(i) Go on leave without pay status; or
(ii) Terminate state employment;
(b) The employee's absence and the use of shared leave are justified;
(c) The employee has depleted or will shortly deplete his or her annual leave and sick leave reserves;
(d) The employee has abided by agency rules regarding sick leave use; and
(e) The employee has diligently pursued and been found to be ineligible for benefits under chapter 51.32 RCW.
(2) The agency head shall determine the amount of leave, if any, which an employee may receive under this section. However, an employee shall not receive a total of more than two hundred sixty-one days of leave.
(3) An employee who has an accrued annual leave balance of more than ten days may request that the head of the agency for which the employee works transfer a specified amount of annual leave to another employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this section. In no event may the employee request a transfer of an amount of leave that would result in his or her annual leave account going below ten days.
(4) An employee ((of
a community college, school district, or educational service district who does
not accrue annual leave but does accrue sick leave and)) who has an accrued
sick leave balance of more than sixty days may request that the head of the
agency for which the employee works transfer a specified amount of sick leave
to another employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this
section. In no event may such an employee request a transfer of more than six
days of sick leave during any twelve month period, or request a transfer that
would result in his or her sick leave account going below sixty days. ((Transfers
of sick leave under this subsection are limited to transfers from employees who
do not accrue annual leave.)) Under this subsection, "sick leave"
also includes leave accrued pursuant to RCW 28A.400.300(2) or 28A.310.240(1)
with compensation for illness, injury, and emergencies.
(5) An employee who has accrued a personal holiday may request that the head of the agency for which the employee works transfer all or part of the personal holiday to another employee authorized to receive leave under subsection (1) of this section.
(6) Transfers of leave made by an agency head under subsections (3) and (4) of this section shall not exceed the requested amount.
(((6))) (7)
Leave transferred under this section may be transferred from employees of one
agency to an employee of the same agency or, with the approval of the heads of
both agencies, to an employee of another state agency. However, leave
transferred to or from employees of school districts or educational service
districts is limited to transfers to or from employees within the same
employing district.
(((7))) (8)
While an employee is on leave transferred under this section, he or she shall
continue to be classified as a state employee and shall receive the same
treatment in respect to salary, wages, and employee benefits as the employee
would normally receive if using accrued annual leave or sick leave.
(a) All salary and wage payments made to employees while on leave transferred under this section shall be made by the agency employing the person receiving the leave. The value of leave transferred shall be based upon the annual leave value of the person receiving the leave.
(b) In the case of leave transferred by an employee of one agency to an employee of another agency, the agencies involved shall arrange for the transfer of funds and credit for the appropriate value of leave.
(i) Pursuant to rules adopted by the office of financial management, funds shall not be transferred under this section if the transfer would violate any constitutional or statutory restrictions on the funds being transferred.
(ii) The office of financial management may adjust the appropriation authority of an agency receiving funds under this section only if and to the extent that the agency's existing appropriation authority would prevent it from expending the funds received.
(iii) Where any questions arise in the transfer of funds or the adjustment of appropriation authority, the director of financial management shall determine the appropriate transfer or adjustment.
(((8))) (9)
Leave transferred under this section shall not be used in any calculation to
determine an agency's allocation of full time equivalent staff positions.
(((9))) (10)
The value of any leave transferred under this section which remains unused
shall be returned at its original value to the employee or employees who transferred
the leave when the agency head finds that the leave is no longer needed or will
not be needed at a future time in connection with the illness or injury for
which the leave was transferred. To the extent administratively feasible, the
value of unused leave which was transferred by more than one employee shall be
returned on a pro rata basis.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Transfers occurring after the effective date of this act may be applied to retroactively cover periods of leave taken between January 1, 1996, and the effective date of this act.
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