Eligibility for Personal Leave

Permanent employees shall be eligible for personal leave at his/her regular rate of pay.

Personal Leave Accrual

All employees shall accrue personal leave at the rate of one and twenty-three hundredths (1.23) hours per pay period, not to exceed thirty-two (32) hours in one year, for each eighty (80) hours in active pay status, excluding overtime hours (.015 hours per hour of non-overtime work.)

Charge of Personal Leave

Personal leave which is used by an employee shall be charged in minimum units of one (1) hour. Employees shall be charged personal leave only for the days and hours for which they would have otherwise been scheduled to work, but shall not include scheduled overtime.

Uses of Personal Leave

Personal leave is intended to be used by an employee to address issues of a personal nature. Personal leave is not intended to be used by an employee in place of vacation leave. Employees may use personal leave for the following reasons:

1. Mandatory court appearance before a court of law and in a matter in which the employee is a party or whose presence is required. Such appearances would include, but are not limited to, criminal or civil cases, traffic court, divorce proceedings, custody proceedings, or appearing as directed as parent or guardian of juveniles.
2. Legal or business matters which could not normally be conducted by an employee during hours other than normal scheduled work hours.
3. Family emergencies of a nature that require an employee's immediate attention.
4. Unusual family obligations which could not normally be conducted by an employee during hours other than normally scheduled work hours.
5. Examinations such as medical, psychological, dental or optical examinations of the employee, or the employee's immediate family.
6. Weddings of members of the immediate family.
7. Religious holidays which fall on a normally scheduled work day for an employee.
8. Any other matter of a personal nature.

Notification and Approval of Use of Personal Leave

Requests for personal leave should be in writing and, when possible, shall be made within a reasonable time in advance of the date or dates requested for use, unless the use is for an emergency situation. Personal leave shall not be unreasonably denied.

The Employer shall grant personal leave requests of eight (8) hours or less received prior to the posting of a work schedule, pursuant to Section 22.02. The Employer may designate certain peak times during the year and/or minimum staffing requirements when operational needs preclude the use of personal leave, however, personal leave requests shall be approved during these peak times if the request is for a personal emergency. At non-peak times or when minimum staffing levels are met, requests for personal leave of eight (8) hours or less received with at least forty-eight (48) hours notice shall not be unreasonably denied.

The Employer may restrict the number of concurrent leave requests granted at a work location. In determining which concurrent request(s) to approve, the Employer may consider the nature of the employee's personal need and the timing of the request(s).

Overtime/Compensatory Time

Personal leave may be used to extend an employee's counts as active pay status for the purpose of accruing earning overtime or compensatory time.

Prohibitions

Personal leave may not be used to extend an employee's date of resignation or date of retirement.

Conversion or Carry Forward of Personal Leave Credit at Year's End

Any personal leave not used prior to the pay period which includes December 1 may be carried forward or paid at the employee's option with payment to be made in the first pay period in December. Maximum accrual of personal leave shall be forty (40) hours. When the maximum accrual has been reached the employee shall receive payment for those hours in excess of the maximum accrual.

Conversion of Personal Leave Credit Upon Separation From Service

An employee who is separated from State service for any reason shall be entitled to convert to cash the unused amount of accrued personal leave. If a full time employee dies, the converted personal leave shall be credited to his/her estate, in accordance with Article 54.

Transfer of Personal Leave Credit

An employee who transfers from one state agency to another shall be credited with the unused balance of his/her personal leave credit up to a maximum personal leave accumulation permitted in the state agency to which the employee transfers.