Session of 1999
HOUSE BILL No. 2515
By Committee on Appropriations
2-17
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.
13
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: 75-
16 5549. (a) The secretary of administration, upon recommendation of the
17 director of personnel services, is hereby authorized to shall adopt rules
18 and regulations as provided by K.S.A. 75-3706, and amendments thereto,
19 establishing and maintaining a program for the sharing of leave between
20 employees of the state of Kansas. The program shall be known as the state
21 employee shared leave program and shall be the shared leave program
22 established by such rules and regulations prior to the effective date of this
23 act, as modified by this act or in accordance with the provisions of this
24 act by rules and regulations adopted by the secretary of administration.
25 (b) Employees authorized to share leave pursuant to such rules and
26 regulations shall be authorized to donate annual vacation and sick leave
27 to the state employee shared leave pool for use by other state employees,
28 either specifically by name or generally, who are suffering from, or who
29 have a family member suffering from, an extraordinary or severe illness,
30 injury, impairment or physical or mental condition which has caused, or
31 is likely to cause, the employee to take leave without pay or terminate
32 employment. As used in this section "extraordinary or severe" means
33 serious, extreme or life threatening. Such rules and regulations may pre-
34 scribe conditions for eligibility for an employee to receive and use shared
35 leave under the state employee shared leave program that require the
36 receiving employee to first use (1) all sick leave credits that are available
37 for use, (2) any compensatory time credits that the employee may have,
38 and (3) a portion of the employee's vacation leave credits, except that the
39 receiving employee shall not be required to use any vacation leave below
40 the level of 144 hours of vacation leave credits, or the equivalent thereof.
41 (c) Each request by an employee for shared leave under the state
42 employee shared leave program shall be acted upon by the employee's
43 appointing authority as soon as practicable and, in any case, such request
44 shall be acted upon within the period of 10 workdays after the day the
45 request was submitted to the appointing authority. The request for shared
46 leave by any employee who has requested shared leave and who has not
47 actually received written notice of a denial of all or part of such request
48 within such period of 10 workdays shall be deemed to have been approved
49 for all purposes under the state employee shared leave program and such
50 employee may use the shared leave as requested in accordance with the
51 state employee shared leave program.
52 (d) Any decision by an appointing authority to deny all or part of a
53 request of an employee in the classified service under the Kansas civil
54 service act to receive shared leave under the state employee shared leave
55 program shall be subject to appeal and review by a shared leave panel in
56 accordance with this section. In the case of a request by any such employee
57 for a review of a decision by an appointing authority to deny all or part
58 of such employee's request for shared leave, the request for shared leave
59 shall be presented to and approved or denied, in whole or in part, by a
60 three-member shared leave panel. The shared leave panel shall be com-
61 posed of a state employee designated by the requesting employee, a state
62 employee designated by the requesting employee's appointing authority
63 and a state employee selected by the other two members of the shared
64 leave panel. A decision by a shared leave panel to deny all or part of any
65 such employee's request for shared leave shall be subject to appeal, review
66 and reversal in the same manner as provided for appeal and review of
67 performance evaluations.
68 (e) In addition to other relevant information, an appointing authority,
69 shared leave panel or other decision-making authority under the state
70 employee shared leave program considering a request for shared leave
71 may consider a requesting employee's history of sick leave use and the
72 reasons therefor. The appointing authority, shared leave panel or other
73 decision-making authority under the state employee shared leave program
74 may approve or deny all or part of a request for shared leave and shall
75 act on a request only after receiving information from the requesting em-
76 ployee and from the state agency.
77 (f) There is hereby established the state employee shared leave pool
78 as part of the state employee shared leave program. All sick leave credits
79 of state officers and employees who retire, terminate or otherwise separate
80 from service with the state, which are not compensated under K.S.A. 75-
81 4371 or 75-5515 and amendments thereto or under any other statute,
82 shall be credited to the state employee shared leave pool under the state
83 employee shared leave program, except that the average aggregate amount
84 of such sick leave credited to the pool in a fiscal year shall not exceed
85 200,000 hours of sick leave credits. The secretary of administration shall
86 adopt rules and regulations prescribing procedures to periodically write-
87 off amounts of sick leave credits in excess of such limitation. Employees
88 may apply for and use leave credited to the state employee shared leave
89 pool in accordance with the state employee shared leave program.
90 (g) The secretary of administration shall adopt and amend rules and
91 regulations in accordance with K.S.A. 75-3707 and amendments thereto
92 for the implementation and administration of the state employee shared
93 leave program in accordance with this section.
94 Sec. 2. K.S.A. 75-5549 is hereby repealed.
95 Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
96 publication in the statute book.