Add STD, remove sick leave?

MrCreosote

Several years ago, when our benefits were set up, it was decided not to have STD, but to be self-insured in a way by having a very generous sick leave accrual (10 days per year) including carryovers. We now have employees with 800 hours of sick leave accrued, which is the maximum. The problem is that new employees don't have those huge carryovers, or STD, leaving them vulnerable. I would like to add STD coverage and decrease the Sick leave, to 3 days per year or something in that range. Can we just erase those carryovers, since we are adding STD and making them unnecessary, or would that be a legal and/or employee relations problem?

NaeNae55

Wether it is legal or not depends upon your state law (I am not familiar with IL law). However, if I was an employee who had 800 hours of sick leave and you suddenly wiped it out and gave me STD instead, I would be furious. First, the STD will not always pay for every reason I might need to be off sick (what if I develop migraines and need intermittant leave). Second, disability rarely pays at 100%. So I might end up getting 60% of my pay even though I had been a very reliable employee in the past by not using up my sick pay. I would feel that I was penalized for being a good employee. My guess then is that you are definitely going to have an employee relations problem. x:o

Why don't you meet them halfway? There are several other options, like buying out some of their time. Perhaps you could lower the maximum (but not too far) and give the employees a percentage of pay for the time you are wiping off the books.

I worked somewhere once where they had a similar problem. They took all balances over a certain amount and moved it into a bank called extended sick leave. Those employees knew that if they had to take off weeks for surgery, etc, that they could access the leave. But in the meantime they were being treated like everyone else as far as maximums, etc. We paid out sick leave when employees left, but not extended sick leave. As far as I know, only one employee ever accessed the ESL, but by keeping it all on the books until employees left, we decreased the uprising by quite a bit. (This was all before fmla.)

As you can see, just be a little creative and you can make it work!

Good luck!

Ross

We recently removed sick leave and went to PTO(Paid Time Off)
As part of the deal with our employees we added Short Term Disability,
increased PTO accual and ceiling by 1/3 and coverted 25% of sick to PTO. There were a few groans in the begining but currently all of EE's prefer
this new system. Its easyer for me, one less thing to track or excuse to
hear. Accouting prefers it PTO shows as a liability on our budget where sick does not. and the added bonus; our employees seem to want to save up thier
PTO rather than spend it a day here, day there.

Good Luck-Ross