SICK LEAVE
Recently, folks may have noticed that sick leave has a higher profile. It seems more managers are talking about sick leave with employees. Where I work crew members are talking about it more with each other. Sick leave is now a topic during performance reviews & coffee breaks. Furlough Days have put pressure on crews & their managers by removing two weeks of production per employee each biennium.

Several years ago the state, through the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) decided that employees would no longer ‘cash out’ their sick leave balances upon retirement. The gist of the argument was that Vacation Leave belongs to the employee; Sick Leave belongs to the state or the employer. At the time, we, labor did not fight the decision; I am not sure why, I suspect there was a legal case that set precedent.
I bring this history up because during the time previous to this decision many, if not most employees sought to build up their sick leave balances, looking toward retirement. If that employee had 160 hours of sick leave at the time of retirement – it was the equivalent of a months pay. The point is that sick leave balances across the agency were high. I could argue artificially high.
Since that decision leave balances have declined. I do not think that is to surprising; the incentive to bank sick leave against retirement was removed. It is also possible that employees attitudes toward sick leave have also changed.

In light of the above - employees sick leave use and balances have become a topic of conversation. In some cases an employee’s sick leave balance has appeared in the written annual performance review. In other cases employees have been told they are no longer considered dependable employees because of their sick leave balance (regardless of their job performance).
Through the Labor / Management Committee process, ODOT Local 730, SEIU 503, OPEU has made it known to the agency that we consider this trend to be in error. To write an employee’s sick leave ‘performance’ into annual performance reviews is to declare a standard. This standard has not been formally declared by the agency, is undefined and is vague at best.
To ODOT’s credit, the Director, Matt Garrett and the Central Services Manager, Clyde Sakai, have agreed that there is no such standard and the use of sick leave in performance reviews is generally not the correct approach. Generally, not the correct approach.

I said above that it is possible that employees' attitudes regarding their sick leave use has changed. Sick leave can and should be used when an employee (or family member) is sick, has medical appointments, treatments, etc. See Article 56 & 56.3 of our collective bargaining agreement.
The state, considers sick leave to belong to the employer; it is on the books as a fiscal liability. If an employee uses sick leave for the last two hours on Friday to go coach his soccer team, he is stealing from the employer. If an employee is ‘sick’ every 3rd Wednesday afternoon to feed folks at the local homeless shelter, she is stealing from the agency. If you are just using down your sick leave balance before you retire but are not sick – it is not sick leave.

Our Union, Your Union does not support employees stealing from our agency. We believe that as public servants we work at a higher standard. A higher standard that we set for ourselves and hold ourselves accountable for.

It is my understanding that currently your sick leave balance can make a positive difference in your retirement calculation. I do not know how and do not believe it is as significant as a decade ago. If you are close to retirement you should ask a PERS consultant what the difference is. I do not believe that benefit will exist much longer. There are bills in the state legislature to again change the retirement program.

Lastly, I believe most managers who encourage their employees to keep a higher sick leave balance have seen fellow employees fall sick unexpectedly (how many of us expect to get sick?). ODOT employees perform many of the occupations that fall on the workman’s comp list of most dangerous jobs. We do get hurt. Your sick leave account is a savings account; I encourage you to manage your sick leave wisely.
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