Session of 1998
                   
HOUSE BILL No. 3021
         
By Committee on Appropriations
         
3-24
            9             AN ACT concerning state officers and employees; relating to the state
10             employee shared leave program; creating the state employee shared
11             leave pool; prescribing certain guidelines and procedures; amending
12             K.S.A. 75-5549 and repealing the existing section.
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14       Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
15           Section 1. K.S.A. 75-5549 is hereby amended to read as follows:
16       75-5549. (a) The secretary of administration, upon recommendation of
17       the director of personnel services, is hereby authorized to shall adopt
18       rules and regulations as provided by K.S.A. 75-3706, and amendments
19       thereto, establishing and maintaining a program for the sharing of leave
20       between employees of the state of Kansas. The program shall be known
21       as the state employee shared leave program and shall be the shared leave
22       program established by such rules and regulations prior to the effective
23       date of this act, as modified by this act or in accordance with the provi-
24       sions of this act by rules and regulations adopted by the secretary of
25       administration.
26           (b) Employees authorized to share leave pursuant to such rules and
27       regulations shall be authorized to donate annual vacation and sick leave
28       to the state employee shared leave pool for use by other state employees,
29       either specifically by name or generally, who are suffering from, or who
30       have a family member suffering from, an extraordinary or severe illness,
31       injury, impairment or physical or mental condition which has caused, or
32       is likely to cause, the employee to take leave without pay or terminate
33       employment. As used in this section ``extraordinary or severe'' means
34       serious, extreme or life threatening. Such rules and regulations may pre-
35       scribe conditions for eligibility for an employee to receive and use shared
36       leave under the state employee shared leave program that require the
37       receiving employee to first use (1) all sick leave credits that are available
38       for use, (2) any compensatory time credits that the employee may have,
39       and (3) a portion of the employee's vacation leave credits, except that the
40       receiving employee shall not be required to use any vacation leave below
41       the level of 144 hours of vacation leave credits, or the equivalent thereof.
42           (c) Each request by an employee for shared leave under the state
43       employee shared leave program shall be acted upon by the employee's

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  1       appointing authority as soon as practicable and, in any case, such request
  2       shall be acted upon within the period of 10 workdays after the day the
  3       request was submitted to the appointing authority. The request for shared
  4       leave by any employee who has requested shared leave and who has not
  5       actually received written notice of a denial of all or part of such request
  6       within such period of 10 workdays shall be deemed to have been approved
  7       for all purposes under the state employee shared leave program and such
  8       employee may use the shared leave as requested in accordance with the
  9       state employee shared leave program.
10           (d) Any decision by an appointing authority to deny all or part of a
11       request of an employee in the classified service under the Kansas civil
12       service act to receive shared leave under the state employee shared leave
13       program shall be subject to appeal and review by a shared leave panel in
14       accordance with this section. In the case of a request by any such employee
15       for a review of a decision by an appointing authority to deny all or part
16       of such employee's request for shared leave, the request for shared leave
17       shall be presented to and approved or denied, in whole or in part, by a
18       three-member shared leave panel. The shared leave panel shall be com-
19       posed of a state employee designated by the requesting employee, a state
20       employee designated by the requesting employee's appointing authority
21       and a state employee selected by the other two members of the shared
22       leave panel. A decision by a shared leave panel to deny all or part of any
23       such employee's request for shared leave shall be subject to appeal, review
24       and reversal in the same manner as provided for appeal and review of
25       performance evaluations.
26           (e) In addition to other relevant information, an appointing authority,
27       shared leave panel or other decision-making authority under the state
28       employee shared leave program considering a request for shared leave
29       may consider a requesting employee's history of sick leave use and the
30       reasons therefor. The appointing authority, shared leave panel or other
31       decision-making authority under the state employee shared leave program
32       may approve or deny all or part of a request for shared leave and shall
33       act on a request only after receiving information from the requesting em-
34       ployee and from the state agency.
35           (f) There is hereby established the state employee shared leave pool
36       as part of the state employee shared leave program. All sick leave credits
37       of state officers and employees who retire, terminate or otherwise separate
38       from service with the state, which are not compensated under K.S.A.
39       75-4371 or 75-5515 and amendments thereto or under any other statute,
40       shall be credited to the state employee shared leave pool under the state
41       employee shared leave program, except that the average aggregate amount
42       of such sick leave credited to the pool in a fiscal year shall not exceed
43       200,000 hours of sick leave credits. The secretary of administration shall

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  1       adopt rules and regulations prescribing procedures to periodically
  2       write-off amounts of sick leave credits in excess of such limitation. Em-
  3       ployees may apply for and use leave credited to the state employee shared
  4       leave pool in accordance with the state employee shared leave program.
  5           (g) The secretary of administration shall adopt and amend rules and
  6       regulations in accordance with K.S.A. 75-3707 and amendments thereto
  7       for the implementation and administration of the state employee shared
  8       leave program in accordance with this section.
  9           Sec. 2. K.S.A. 75-5549 is hereby repealed.
10           Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
11       publication in the statute book.
12      
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