1. Purpose
1.1 Salt Lake City Corporation provides leave programs to help employees meet health, family and personal needs.
1.2. The City recognizes that most employees use leave programs wisely. However, when abuse of leave privileges occurs, this abuse negatively impacts the delivery of City services and places a burden on other City employees.
2. Definitions
2.1 Leave abuse – May exist when the employee:
a. Repeatedly fails to meet the expectation that he or she will be on the job, on time, when scheduled to work.
b. Frequently calls in sick on the first or last day of the workweek, creating a “Monday-Friday” absence pattern.
c. Exhausts his or her leave balances and requests unpaid absence not covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the Department’s established procedure for requesting administrative unpaid leave.
d. Without permission, arrives late to work or leaves work early.
e. Fails to properly notify the supervisor prior to absence.
2.2 Unscheduled Leave – Sick leave or personal leave that is requested and approved after the end of the employee’s work shift immediately preceding the requested leave shift. (Does not apply to absence caused by bona fide illness, injury or emergency that can be documented, provided proper notice is given.)
2.3 Proper Notice of Unscheduled Leave – Unless subject to a different procedure established by memorandum of understanding, the department or the employee’s work unit, an employee (non-exempt or exempt) requesting unscheduled sick leave or unscheduled personal leave shall contact his or her immediate supervisor no later than 15 minutes before the scheduled shift, unless circumstances beyond the employee’s control prevent such contact.
2.4 FLSA Non-Exempt Employee – Employee who is subject to the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
3. General
3.1 Supervisors are expected to monitor employee attendance and tardiness, to encourage good attendance through appropriate recognition, and to deal fairly and consistently with problems of abuse.
3.2 Patterns of leave abuse will be addressed with appropriate progressive non-disciplinary and disciplinary intervention, to control incidents of insufficient or improper notice, unscheduled leave, unpaid leave, tardiness, and early departures from the workplace.
3.3 Whether covered under Plan A or Plan B, employees who falsely “call in sick” are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
3.4 In administering this policy, the City shall comply with all legal requirements, including requirements of the Family Medical and Leave Act (FMLA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
3.5 It is intended that this policy will conform to the City’s labor agreements, compensation plans and disciplinary policies and guidelines.
3.6 The City may require employees who request unscheduled leave to furnish medical certification.
3.7 Employees may not use leave hours in the same pay period as hours are earned. Employees may use only those hours posted as available on the pay stub on the actual pay date.
3.8 Employees may not exhaust their leave accounts and be absent without pay, unless such absence is FMLA leave, military leave, or leave otherwise required by law or approved by the department head. Other instances will result in disciplinary or non-disciplinary intervention by City managers.
3.9 It shall be a violation of this policy for FLSA non-exempt employees to arrive late to work or leave work early without permission of a supervisor. Following established disciplinary procedure, the City may dock the pay of any non-exempt employee who is not working during his or her scheduled work time.
3.10 Departmental policies for managing unscheduled leave may be relied upon in lieu of this policy if approved by the City’s Chief Administrative Officer. In case of conflict between any such department policy and this policy, this policy shall take precedence.
CURRENT REFERENCES:
a. Standards of Conduct Policy
b. Disciplinary Guidelines Policy
c. Attendance Procedures: Guidelines for Using and Managing Unscheduled Leave
d. Fair Labor Standards Act
e. Family and Medical Leave Act
f. Family and Medical Leave Policy
g. Americans with Disabilities Act
h. Employee compensation plans
i. Bargaining Unit Memoranda of Understanding
j. Human Resources benefits documents
PRE-1995 REFERENCES: None identified.
DATE APPROVED BY MAYOR (EFFECTIVE DATE): April 18, 2005