Section 420.610  Sick Leave

a)         Sick Leave Definition: All employees, except those in emergency, permanent part-time, intermittent, per diem, or temporary status, unless the status is the result of accepting a nonpermanent working assignment in another class, shall accumulate sick leave at the rate of one day for each month's service.  Intermittent and permanent part-time employees shall accrue sick time on a prorated hourly basis determined by a ratio, the numerator of which shall be number of hours in pay status each month and the denominator of which shall be the number of normal work hours that month.

b)         Accumulation of Sick Leave:  Employees shall be allowed to carry over from year to year of continuous service any unused sick leave.  An employee shall retain any unused sick leave accumulated prior to December 1, 1980.

c)         Reinstatement of Sick Leave:

1)         On or after the effective date of this Section, accumulated sick leave available at the time an employee's continuous service is interrupted shall, upon verification, be reinstated to the employee's account upon return to full-time, regularly scheduled part-time, or intermittent employment, except in temporary or emergency status.  This reinstatement is applicable provided the interruption of service occurred not more than 5 years prior to the date the employee reenters service and provided the sick leave has not been credited by the appropriate retirement system towards retirement benefits.

2)         An employee with previous service for which sick leave was granted under provisions other than Jurisdiction C of the Code shall have the sick leave reinstated to the extent provided under this Section.

d)         Advancement of Sick Leave:  An employee with more than 2 years continuous service whose personnel records warrant it may be advanced sick leave with pay for not more than 10 working days, with the written approval of the department and the Director of Personnel.  Advances will be charged against sick leave accumulated later in subsequent service.  No additional advance of sick time will be made until all previously advanced time is repaid.

            e)         Use of Sick Leave:

1)         Sick leave shall be used in the following order:

A)        Sick leave granted prior to January 1, 1984 will be used first;

B)        Sick leave granted beginning January 1, 1998 will be used second;

C)        Sick Leave granted from January 1, 1984 through December 31, 1997 will be used last.

2)         Sick leave may not be used in increments of less than ½ hour at a time, but in conjunction with the first ½ hour may be taken in additional 15-minute increments. Permanent part-time and intermittent employees may use sick time in 15-minute increments.

3)         Sick leave may be used for illness, disability or injury of the employee or appointments with doctor, dentist or other professional medical practitioner, and also may be used for not more than 30 days in one calendar year in the event of serious illness, disability, injury, or death of a member of the employee's immediate family, unless such time is used pursuant to the Family Medical Leave Act (29 USC 2601 et seq.).

4)         The employing department or the Department of Personnel shall, when there is apparent abuse, require evidence to substantiate that sick leave days were used for the purposes set forth in subsection (e)(3). For periods of absence of more than 5 consecutive workdays, the employee shall provide verification for the absence in accordance with the provisions of Section 420.760(b)(4). 

5)         Employees may be granted up to 3 days (a day being equal to his/her actual workday) of paid leave time, in addition to the use of sick time allowed in subsection (e)(3), to attend services and related events and make necessary arrangements upon the death of a member of his/her immediate family. For purposes of this subsection (e)(5), immediate family includes father/step-father, mother/step-mother, brother/step‑brother, sister/step-sister, son/step-son, daughter/step‑daughter, spouse, parties to a marriage, domestic partner (established prior to 6-1-11), party to a civil union, child (including adopted, custodial or in-law), grandparent, grandchild, parent-in-law, brother or sister-in-law, niece, nephew, aunt and uncle.  The employee may be required to provide documentation as to the necessity for absences covered by this subsection (e)(5).

f)         Payment in Lieu of Sick Leave:  

1)         Unless otherwise provided by law, upon separation of employment by means of resignation, retirement, death, indeterminate layoff, or discharge, and if the employee is not employed in another position in State service within 4 calendar days of the separation, an employee is entitled to be paid for unused sick leave which accrued on or after January 1, 1984 and prior to January 1, 1998 in accordance with subsection (e)(3).

2)         The amount of sick leave to be paid upon termination of employment will be determined as follows:  

A)        using time records from the employing department, the Department of Personnel will verify the employee's sick leave balance for sick leave earned, but not taken, in the period from January 1, 1984 up to and including December 31, 1997;

B)        the employees will be paid one-half of the amount of sick leave days determined in subsection (e)(2)(A), multiplied by the daily salary rate in effect at the time of separation.

3)         The method for computing the hourly or daily salary rate for sick leave qualifying for lump sum payment upon separation of employment shall be determined by Payroll.

4)         If an employee has a negative sick leave balance pursuant to subsection (d) when employment is separated, the employing department must submit this negative sick leave balance to Payroll, where one of the following will be applied:  

A)        Subtract the negative sick leave balance from the earning amount still due to the employee by the Secretary of State.

B)        Contact employing department, stating dollar amount of overpayment to employee.  The employing department then has the responsibility of contacting the employee regarding the dollar amount due to the Secretary of State, payable by personal check or money order.

C)        If no repayment occurs, Payroll will establish a lien against any State of Illinois monetary payment due to the employee through the Comptroller for the negative sick leave balance owed to the Secretary of State.

5)         An employee who is reemployed, reinstated or recalled from indeterminate layoff and who received lump sum payment in lieu of unused sick days will have the days restored by doing the following:

A)        The employee must notify the employing department to request restoration of the previously paid unused sick days to the employee's sick leave account; and

B)        The employee must repay the gross (total) amount paid by the State (before deductions) to the Secretary of State by personal check or money order.  The employing department will forward the employee's repayment to Payroll before unused sick days are returned to the employee's sick leave account.

g)         Pursuant to the Secretary of State Merit Employment Code [15 ILCS 310/10b.18], an employee who is also a veteran shall be permitted 4 days with pay per year to visit a veterans' hospital for examination of a military service connected disability. Upon submitting proof of the visit, the 4 days shall not be charged against any sick leave currently available to the employee.

(Source:  Amended at 39 Ill. Reg. 14182, effective October 19, 2015)