Union City council members Nov. 15 approved a measure to give city employees the ability to sell back a portion of their accrued sick leave on a once per year basis.

Prior to the vote, Human Resources Director Ski Saxby presented a plan that stemmed from an approved request in July to sell back vacation leave. Saxby presented three options, with a recommendation of adopting Option 3, designed to address “selling back” a portion of accrued sick leave rather than vacation leave.

Option 1 would keep the current policy, that of not allowing employees to sell back vacation time, as written. Option 2 would change the policy to include selling back leave time only on an emergency basis and only when approved on a case-by-case basis by the mayor and city council. Option 3 would allow city employees to “sell back” sick leave instead of vacation leave.

“An example of how we could apply this process is to allow employees to ‘sell back’ half of their accrued sick time per year,” Saxby said. “Employees accrue one sick day a month. At the end of the year, if they do not use any sick time, they would be allowed to ‘sell back’ up to six days since there were 12 days accrued. This would be considered an employee option and not a requirement.”

Saxby said Option 3 would allow employees to address individual needs and would provide an incentive not to use sick leave needlessly or in a haphazard fashion. He said the measure would likely increase attendance and productivity while allowing departmental staff to reduce budgeting monies to cover sick time liability. Other anticipated benefits of Option 3, Saxby said, included a decrease in overtime costs because fewer employees would call in sick and a saving to the city when employees cash in the allotted percentage of sick leave upon resignation or retirement.

The current sick time policy provides for cashing in up to 20 percent of accrued sick leave. Though usage of accrued sick time varies by employee, some have amassed hundreds of hours, Saxby said. When an employee resigns or retires the accrued sick leave is cashed in at their current rate of pay. Allowing employees the capability to cash in up to half of their accrued sick time each year would save money in the long run because it would be paid at the employees current rate and not at the future pay rate, Saxby explained.

During a discussion of the proposal, City Administrator Terrell Jacobs said that if adopted, the new policy should begin during the next budget cycle.

Council members voted unanimously to adopt the measure, specifying that the cash in period would occur annually beginning next year around the Christmas season.

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