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Home My WebLink About2008-03-05 PACKET 04.C.REQUEST OF CITY COUNCIL ACTION COUNCIL AGENDA MEETING ITEM # DATE 03/05/08 ' • PREPARED BY: Finance and Administrative Services Ron Hedberg ORIGINATING DEPRRTMENT STAFF AUTHOR �,�,��,�..��.�� COUNCIL ACTION REQUEST: Consider extending the pilot Annual Leave Donation Program policy until December 31, 2009. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: Approve the extension of the pilot Annual Leave Donation Program policy. BUDGET IMPLICAT{ON: $ BUDGETED AMOUNT ADVISORY COMMISSION ACTION: ❑ PLANNING ❑ PUBLIC SAFETY ❑ PUBLIC WORKS ❑ PARKS AND RECREATION ❑ HUMAN SERVICES/RIGHTS ❑ ECONOMIC DEV. AUTHORITY ❑ SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS: DATE $ ACTUAL AMOUNT FUNDING SOURCE REVIEWED ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ APPROVED ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ � MEMOl�ETTER: Memo for Joe Fischbach and proposed policy. ❑ RESOLUTION: ❑ ORDINANCE: ❑ ENGINEERING RECOMMENDATION: ❑ LEGAL RECOMMENDATION: ❑ OTHER: ADMINISTRATORS COMMENTS: I �f �r..;lG _ i �� , _ _. .. DENIED ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ c�-�s� Date �� ,��„�� ,��.�� , � �.�� COUNCIL ACTION TAKEN: [� APPROVED ❑ DENIED ❑ OTHER �; _ CITY OF COTTAGE GROVE MINNESOTA To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Joe Fischbach, Management Analyst�� Date: 02/20/2008 Subject: Annuai Leave Donation Program policy BACKGROUND Back in November of 2006 the City Council approved a pilot Annual Leave Donation Program policy that expired in December 2007. No employees have used the program to date. Staff is recommending that the policy be extended until December 31, 2009. This would allow staff to evaluate the program and eitner bring back to the Council for an extension or, if in the best interest of the City, discontinue the program. Below is the background that was provided to Council wnen this item was originally brought before Council for consideration in November 2006. It should be noted that since the original memo was drafted the AFSCME union negotiated a different Annual Leave accrual schedule that is effective starting in 2009. Following is the AFSCME Annual Leave time off schedule based on years of service: 0-5 years- 18 days off, 6-10 years- 19 days off, 11-15 years- 25 days off and15+ years- 27 days off. Over the past year several employees have approached the Administration department because they wanted to donate some of their Annual Leave to a feilow employee that was close to exhausting or had exhausted all their paid leave due to an injury or i�lness. The answer to them was that there is no such policy in piace to ailow for that. After an in-depth analysis that included feedback from the unions, other cities and staff we have drafted a pilot policy that would end at the end of 2007. This would allow staff to evaluate the program and either bring back to the Councii for an extension or, if in the best interest of the City, discontinue the program. The City currently uses a Personal Time Off (Annual �eave) plan instead of a sick, funerai leave and vacation pian for time off. Following is the Annual Leave time off schedule based on years of service: 0-7 years- 18 days off, 8-15 years- 24 days off, 15+ years- 26 days off. We also have a self-insured short-term disability program with a 20 day waiting period. In other words, an employee has to use paid leave time or go unpaid untii they reach the 21�` day in which the short-term disability insurance would take effect. This would stay in effect until they are abie to come back to work or until the 91 day where they would go on unpaid status or, if elected, their long-term disability insurance policy would go in to effect. Currently, the police and sergeants unions have long-term disability insurance paid by the City and all other employees have the option of electing long-term disability insurance. This long-term disability coverage begins on the 91 day in which an employee is unable to work. Currentiy the maximum an employee can receive is $5000 per month based on 60% of their gross income. That means everyone who makes iess than $100,000/year can be fully covered. This program would cover injuries or iliness that occur off the job, injuries or ilinesses that occur on the job are covered by injury-on-duty and/or workers' compensation insurance. The intent of program is to bridge the gap between when paid leave is exhausted and short-term disability takes effect. RECOMMENDATION Approve the extension of the pilot Annual Leave Donation Program policy until December 31, 2009. POLICY: ANNUAL LEAVE DONATION PROGRAM PILOT PROGRAM: EXPIRES 12/31/2009 The City of Cotta;e Grove recognizes that a"serious health condition" of an employee or an immediate family member (defined as the employee's spouse, parent, or an employce's legal dependent) may deplete an employee's available paid leave (annual leave/compensatory time). This policy is meant to provide employees with the option of assisting fellow employees at such a time. City employees having accrued annual leave will be allowed to donate a ponion of such accrued leave to fellow employees esperiencing such an event. A"serious health condition" is defined by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (please see Human Resources for a printed copy). To be eligible for this program an empioyee must submit forms to Human Resources documenting a physician's diagnosis using the FMLA medical certification of the catastrophic health problem and information regarding its expected duration. This program is to run concurrently with PMLA if deemed appropriate by the City Administrator. The following establishes the procedure through which eligible employees may voluntarily donate a portion of their accrued annual leave balance to be converted to assist another employee who has exhausted all forms of paid leave due to the experience of a"serious health condition"' by himself/herself or an immediate family member. ELIGIBILITY: All regular, ehempt and non-exempt, bargaining unit and non-union empioyees may participate in the Leave Donation Program. To be eligible to surrender annual leave to another employee, a request form must be completed and submitted to Human Resources. Requests for participation in the Leave Donation Program will be accepted only for individuals who are defined as themselves or an immediate family member having an approved "serious health conditiori', and are within one pay period of eshausting all accrued paid leave. Employees receiving Worker's Compensation beuefits from a City related injury or illness or employees receiving short-terni disability, long-term disability, PERA disability, FICA disability or other leave benefits are not eligible to receive donations. Employees must be benefit-eligible staff in order to participate as a recipient or donor of this program. CONDITIONS: The ternis axid conditions governing the Leave Donation Program are as follows: The proposed recipient has filled out and submitted the "request to participate'" form. The proposed recipient has authorized the employer to inform other empioyees of the proposed recipienf s"serious health condition'" ar that of their immediate family member. Page I of 6 A written request to donate leave must be made to Human Resources on forms designated by the City for that purpose. Human Resources shall submit all requests to the City Administrator for final approval. All donations made �vill be kept confidential. The City Administrator shall have the right to deny use of donated leave or limit its use if it is determined to be in the best interests of the City of Cottage Grove. Prior to processing the first surrendered hours to an employee, Human Resources will verify the eligibility of the named recipient (i.e. employee status and eshaustion of all acerued paid leave) and request the individual's written consent to pariicipate in the Leave Donation Program. No surrender of leave time hours will be processed until this written authorization is received. The authorization will remain valid until the individual revokes it (in writing or verbally to Human Resources) or he/she becomes ineligible to participate in the Program. • No provisions of this policy, or its administration, shall be subject to review under the grievance or arbitration provisions of any collective bargaining agreement or persomiel policy. • 1�`othing in this policy will be construcd to limit or extend the maximum allowable absence under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). • An employee is only eligible to receive sun�endered leave for time lost from normal work hours, not including overtime or premimn payment. • An employee will be eligible to receive surrendered leave only after all of the employee's accrued leave time (annual leave, holiday and compensatory time) has been e�;hausted. Also, annual leave transfers can be made only after an einployee is unable to work for more than five (5 ) scheduled working days. • An employee who surrenders anuual leave time must read and sign a statement which stipulates that the employee understands the nature of the "gift" and that the donated leave will be irrevocable and he/she has no control over how the leave is used once donated. `I'he donator also acknowledges that the receiving employee has no obligation to pay it back. • Surrender of accrued annual leave time must be in whole hours, with a minimum of two hours per employee surrendering leave hours. Contributions into the Leave Donation Program can be made unly if the donatar has an accumulated annual leave bank in eacess of 80 hours. An employee may donate no more ihan forty (40) hours of leave per calendar year to a single fellow emplo}�ee. This shall not be construed to prohibit donating forty (40) hours per year to additional employees. o No employee will be allowed to receive mor (15) work days or 120 hours of donated leave major life threatening disease or condition. e than a total of the lesser of fifteen for any medical emergency or single This cap is pro-rated for pari-time r�� z �>r� donation requesters based on full-time equivalency status. A full-time employee is eligible to receive transfers of annual leave time from other employees one time per twelve (12) month period, up to the maximum leave time, upon approval by the City Administrator. • The Finance Department (as part of the payroll function) will subtract surrendered leave from the donor's accumulated balance and credii the donated hours to the requested employee. • Transfers of leave hours will be on an hour-by-hour basis; each hour of donor leave will be credited as an hour of leave for the recipient, regardless of any differences in pay levels. • Receipt of leave will be included in the annual Parm W-2 prepared for the recipient. State and Federal income taa and FICA/Medicare taY and Supplemental Retireinent contributions, depending on the eligibility of the recipient, will be withheld by the City at the time of payment. • Participation within the Leave Dunation Program by employees will be completely voluntary. No City employee shall pressure or otherwise attempt to influence another City employee to surrender annual leave time. The City will not inform the recipient of the names of those surrendering hours or the number of hours which have been surrendered by any individual. For plaruiing purposes, the recipient will be informed of the total number of hours donated. As a recipicnt of the Leave Donation Program, wages shall be limited to the amount equal to tl�at individual's reguiar gross earnings per pay period (i.e. his/her carrent hourly base pay rate multiplied by his/her regularly scheduled hours of work per pay period). In the event surrendered leave hours e�ceed this limit, they will be processed in the order of the date on the Leave Donation Program authorization form, with the earliest date processed iirst. E�cess hours of surrendered leave will be held until the following pay period(s) and processed at that time. Once donated time has been transferred to the eligible employee, neither the donor nor the eligible employee may revoke the transaction, even if it has not yet been paid. Any remaining donations after termination of the program will be returned to the donors who provided authorizations which were not utilized. • Surrendered hours will not count toward leave accmiiulation for the recipicnt nor will it extend medical benefit while using donated time. Donated annual leave time cannot be used for severance pay, paid out to an employee in the farm of cash, or used in any other manner other than what is stated in this section of the policy. EXCEPTIONS: Esceptions to these requirements may be approved by the City Administrator in rare and unusual circumstances. The City Administrator shall have the right to deny use of Pagz 3 of b surrendered leave or liinit its use, if it is determined to be in the best interest of the City. Any questions regarding this program should be directed to Human Resources. Page -F uf 6 City of Cottage Grove Minnesota LEAVE DONATION PROGRAM (Pilot Program: Expires 12/31/2009) ANNUAL LEAVE TIME WAIVER AND SURRENDER AUTHORIZATION FORM Havin? read and understood the City cf Cottage Gsov2's ieava Dcnation Frogram at�ached to this form, and subj=_ct Lo t:he �erms anc cor.ditions set forth therein, I hereby voluntarilp o✓a�ve my antitlement to ar.d �urrender `ours of my acorued annual leave on the condition that the equi*�alenc hours I surrender are paid bp the City o� Cottage Gr�ve to tre anplcy�ee I have ident�.f�.ed '.^,e�ow. I also u^derstand that I;�ay rot s�.:��eader �r.ore �.,an 40 `ocal hours and ;�::st %aep a �o�ai o_° 8G 'r.curs �., ny �o�a:.. =�aoe oa^:�: EMPLOYEE TO RECEIVE SURRENDERED ANNUAL LEAVE: Pri :t: (�a�t_) (First) Departm2nt/Divisior.: I undzrstand that„ upor. sc�missior. o° this forr.i., I cannot , ^ontroi the timing cf the deduction of r�e surrend=_red hours from my ar.nual leave balance and that„ whil2 T_ wiii not be specificallp notified wner, �na s�zrrendered 'nours ar� proce5sed, I msy deternir,e this by mor,itcr5.ng Tne arnual laace t�.[:e balance repo�ted o^ c-acr. o� my naycnack or nirect danos�t st��s. _�ta:�e of e_np�.o1ee s.:_rendering �.eGVe ��r�nt; : �n.��oyee ti�,:r..ber .._ e�p-olee sur�enderin� 1Eava: Departmant/Divis.';on of employee surr.ender'_ng leave: Sigr.acure cY Empl,oyee surrandering leace: Dztz c` R2caest: H�,:^�.�.n Raso�wrces l�ppro�=a� S�gr.at�.:�e: Page ? of fi City of Cottage Grove Minnesota LEAVE DONATION PROGRAM (Pilot Program: Expires 12/31/2009j ANNUAL LEAVE TIME DONATION REQUEST FORM Ha,=ing read and understoo��. the .^.itp c£ Cct�age Grcve's �eave �oaation Pregram atr_ached to t^is form, ar�d sublect to the term� ar.d cendit�_cr.s sa, fort:: thereir, LL:ereby an w�1�ir.g to a�:cept hours surrenderea py ny co-wor'r:ers dur�nq tc.e �ime of ;c�✓ or an ir.i,�n.adia�e fa;r�iiy� m.en.oer's sericus nea=tr: con�i�ion"(see HuT.a� �teso�rces {or de`ini�ion). The ��ty �1dm_nis�rator w_1� :caka the �inal de�armina��o;� cf apo�oval or aanial to �arta;:e i;: tl,is program. curther�r,cre, _ r�a1_::a that these pa��r,en'�s are �o be cons�:c-red - wages, �^d rhorefora ta income tc mz. INFORMATION OF EMPLOYEE REQUESTING SURRENDERED LEAVE DONATIONS: ?rint: (�ast; (Fi_st) Lapas `:r�e^ `/�i-�is'_on : E�.p'_oyea Ydarcoe: o_° e:�p�oyee acc�ptinc ��eava: S:g^at�are cf En.�lolee: Da�e of kequest: City Adm.'_r's':ra.or Apprcval Signa�cre: Page 6 of 6