60L-34.0042. Sick Leave

(1) Employees in senior management service and selected exempt service positions shall be credited with 104 hours of sick leave.

(2)(a) Full-time career service employees paid on a monthly basis shall earn eight hours and forty minutes of sick leave for each full calendar month of employment. Full-time career service employees paid on a biweekly basis shall earn four hours of sick leave for each full biweekly period worked.

(b) Part-time career service employees and career service employees who work less than a full pay period due to initial employment or separation during a pay period, transfer between agencies, or leave of absence without pay, shall earn sick leave credits for the hours worked during that pay period as follows:

Biweekly Pay Period

Number of Hours Actually Worked	Hours of Sick Leave Credit
Less than 17	0
17 through 32.99	1
33 through 47.99	2
48 through 63.99	3
64 or more	4

 

Monthly Pay Period

Number of Hours Actually Worked	Hours of Sick Leave Credit
Less than 36	0
36 through 70.99	2.167
71 through 103.99	4.333
104 through 138.99	6.500
139 or more	8.667

(c) There shall be no limit on the number of hours of unused sick leave an employee may accrue.

(3) Sick leave shall be authorized for the following purposes:

(a) The employee’s personal illness, injury, or exposure to a contagious disease that would endanger others. Personal illness shall include disability caused or contributed to by pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, childbirth, and recovery therefrom.

(b) The employee’s personal appointments with a doctor, dentist, or other recognized practitioner.

(c) Illness, injury, or well-care check-ups of the employee’s spouse, the children or parents of the employee or the spouse, or a person for whom the employee or the spouse has a caretaker responsibility, when the employee’s presence is necessary. Each agency shall establish an agency-wide definition of “caretaker.”

(d) Care and bonding within one year following a documented birth or adoption of the employee’s child. The documentation provided shall be in accordance with paragraph 60L-34.00421(3)(b), F.A.C. Leave used for care and bonding in accordance with this rule and paid parental leave in accordance with subsection 60L-34.00421(3), F.A.C., cannot exceed a combined total of 16 weeks.

(4) Upon request, an employee may use accrued sick leave credits subject to the following:

(a) An employee may use sick leave only for authorized purposes. Unauthorized use may be revealed by a pattern of absence by an employee, for example, consistent absence on the day before or after the employee’s regular days off, or absence on the same day of each week or each month.

(b) After three workdays or partial workdays of absence in any thirty-day period, the agency may require medical verification of any further absence(s) due to illness or injury.

(c) After ten consecutive days of absence, the agency shall require the employee to submit medical verification from the attending physician before authorizing additional use of sick leave credits or leave without pay. If absence continues, the agency shall require, as appropriate, further medical verification for each thirty consecutive days of absence. To justify further sick leave, the medical verification must indicate that the employee is unable to perform regularly assigned duties.

(d) If an employee’s medical verification is not acceptable, the agency may require the employee to submit to a medical examination, at the agency’s expense, before approving further use of sick leave.

(e) An employee who refuses to comply with these rules shall not be eligible to use accrued sick leave credits, and the agency shall take the appropriate action regarding continued employment, based on the available information.

(5) An agency may establish a formal sick leave transfer plan, which allows an employee to donate personal sick leave credits to another employee.

(a) The plan may limit the transfer of sick leave credits within the agency only, or allow for inter-agency transfers, provided that inter-agency transfers shall allow for both the receipt of and donation of sick leave credits. The same plan provisions and restrictions shall apply to transfers within the agency and inter-agency transfers.

(b) A plan that allows inter-agency transfers shall ensure that all requests to donate from within the agency are identified and processed before donations from other agencies are considered, except for transfer by the receiving employee’s spouse and the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren of both the employee and the spouse.

(c) Participation in the plan shall at all times be voluntary on the part of the donating employee and the receiving employee.

(d) An employee may participate in the plan by voluntarily transferring sick leave credits, provided that a minimum of eighty hours of sick leave credits remain in the employee’s account following execution of the sick leave credit transfer. The minimum transfer amount for each transaction shall be eight hours. The employee cannot cancel the donation once the agency completes the transfer.

(e) To be eligible to receive sick leave credits under the plan, an employee must meet the following conditions:

1. The employee has used all accrued sick and annual leave and all types of earned compensatory leave.

2. The employee has suffered a documented illness, accident or injury, and requires, as certified by the treating physician, absence from the workplace for a minimum of five consecutive workdays. Unless waived by the employing agency, transferred sick leave credits shall be used for absences associated with such documented conditions beginning with the sixth missed workday or partial workday or on the first day the employee has exhausted all leave credits, whichever is later. Donated leave may be used consecutively, intermittently or in increments of a quarter hour, as needed.

3. The employee is not eligible for disability leave.

4. The employee has not used more than 1,040 hours of transferred sick leave credits in the preceding twelve-month period.

(f) When transferring sick leave credits, the agency shall credit the employee with only the amount of sick leave needed to bring the employee’s total number of compensable hours up to the minimum number of hours for the pay period.

(g) All credits donated under the plan shall be credited to the receiving employee on a first in, first out basis. Upon documented cessation of the qualifying illness, accident or injury, any unused transferred sick leave credits shall be returned to those employees whose donated sick leave credits have not yet been drawn upon under the first-in, first-out method.

(h) Transferred sick leave credits shall have no terminal value.

(6) An agency may establish sick leave pools, subject to the following:

(a) The agency shall determine the number of pools to establish, if any, and the employees who will be eligible to participate in each pool. The agency shall designate an administrator responsible for administering each pool, and shall appoint at least three employees participating in the pool to serve as a committee. The administrator shall meet with the committee and act as liaison with the appropriate agency personnel office to review a participating employee’s individual sick leave account. Each committee shall establish internal procedures that shall include, but not be limited to, the following:

1. The enrollment of participating employees in the sick leave pool.

2. Application for use of sick leave credits from the pool.

3. Initial and subsequent deductions from participating employee’s sick leave accounts.

(b) Participation in a pool shall at all times be voluntary. An employee may participate in a pool after completing one year of employment with the state, provided that the employee has accumulated at least sixty-four hours of sick leave. Each full-time participating employee shall contribute eight hours of sick leave in the first month of eligibility, and thereafter, each full-time participant shall contribute eight hours each time the pool is depleted. A part-time employee shall contribute sick leave on a pro-rata basis in the first month of eligibility and each time the pool is depleted.

(c) The agency shall determine, or may delegate to the committee to determine, the following:

1. The number of hours to be deposited in the pool to activate the pool for use by eligible employees.

2. The maximum number of hours in the pool that any one employee may use.

3. The number of hours that will constitute depletion of the pool and require further contribution by participating employees.

a. At the time the pool is depleted, if a participating full-time employee’s individual sick leave balance is less than eight hours, or a part-time participant’s balance is less than the pro-rated amount, the employee shall contribute all hours accumulated, and shall contribute the remainder as soon as additional sick leave credits have been accrued. The employee shall not use sick leave credits until the amount owed to the pool has been contributed.

b. When a participating employee repeatedly fails to have a sufficient balance of individual sick leave credits to contribute to the pool, the administrator shall investigate the reasons and the committee, by majority vote, shall determine whether to cancel the employee’s membership in the pool.

(d) At the time of retirement or separation from the State Personnel System, a participating employee may “donate” to a pool up to sixteen hours of unused or unpaid sick leave from the employee’s individual sick leave balance.

(7) Sick leave credits may be transferred to or from employees within the State Personnel System and other Executive Branch agencies within one year following a documented birth or adoption of an employee’s child for care and bonding. The documentation provided shall be in accordance with paragraph 60L-34.00421(3)(b), F.A.C.

(a) The following requirements apply to an employee receiving sick leave credits under this subsection:

1. The employee has used all eligible paid parental leave benefits under subsection 60L-34.00421(3), F.A.C., all sick leave accrued under subsections 60L-34.0042(1) and (2), F.A.C., and all types of compensatory leave; and

2. Sick leave credits used in accordance with this subsection are subject to the limitations in paragraph (3)(d) and subparagraph (5)(e)4.

(b) For purposes of this subsection, Executive Branch agency is defined as those entities specified in Chapter 20, F.S.: Executive Branch Organizational Structure.

(c) Transfer of sick leave credits to and from employees of Executive Branch agencies outside of the State Personnel System is contingent on the transfer rules of the applicable agency.

(8) The following provisions govern the retention and transfer of sick leave credits.

(a) Credits shall be transferred within the State Personnel System, and may be transferred to another state government employer, depending upon whether the receiving plan accepts the employee’s leave credits. If the receiving employer does not accept the credits, the employee shall be paid for the credits if eligible under Section 110.122(1), F.S.; otherwise, the credits shall expire.

(b) If an employee is laid off, the following provisions govern accrued sick leave credits.

1. If the employee has ten years or more of creditable state service and is otherwise eligible for receipt of sick leave payment pursuant to this rule, the agency shall pay for the credits at the time of layoff, unless the employee requests in writing that the agency hold the credits in abeyance pending reemployment within one year.

2. If the employee is reemployed within one year following layoff, an agency shall restore the credits to the employee, provided the employee requests restoration in writing and returns the full amount of any payment received at time of layoff for the credits.

3. If the employee is not eligible for receipt of sick leave payment at the time of layoff, the agency shall hold the credits in abeyance and, if the employee is reemployed within one year following layoff, shall credit them to the employee upon reemployment.

Rulemaking Authority 110.1055, 110.1522, 110.201, 110.219(5), 110.403, 110.605 FS. Law Implemented 110.121, 110.122, 110.219 FS. History–New 1-1-02, Amended 12-11-23.