The Sick Leave Pool Policy was established by the Board of Regents at the February 8, 1990 meeting pursuant to Article 6252.8e of Texas Revised Civil Statutes Annotated. The policy was amended on December 3, 1992, to clarify that employees must exhaust all accrued leave, both annual and sick leave, in order to be eligible to be considered for leave from the sick leave pool and on February 8, 1996 to change the number of days an employee may transfer to a sick leave pool from "at least one but not more than three days" in a fiscal year to "one or more days." Additionally, retiring employees were authorized to donate their sick leave credits to the pool.

The policy was again revised on August 9, 2001 to conform to 77th Texas Legislature amendments to Section 661.003 of the Texas Government Code to delete application and approval requirements related to an employee’s contributions of earned sick leave to the sick leave pool.

SICK LEAVE POOL POLICY

1. PURPOSE. Each component institution of the U. T. System and U. T. System Administration shall establish a sick leave pool to provide a source of additional sick leave for those employees who have exhausted accrued annual leave and sick leave because of a catastrophic illness or injury.

2. DEFINITIONS. As used in this Policy:

2.1 "Catastrophic illness or injury" means a severe condition or combination of conditions affecting the mental or physical health of an employee or the employee's immediate family that requires the services of a licensed physician for a prolonged period of time and that requires the employee to exhaust accrued leave and to lose compensation from the State.

2.2 “Employee” means an eligible employee of a component institution of the U. T. System or the U. T. System Administration. An eligible employee is defined as employed to work at least 20 hours per week for a period of at least four and one-half months, and not employed in a position for which the employee is required to be a student as a condition of the employment.

2.3 “Immediate family” means an individual related by kinship, adoption, or marriage who lives in the same household; a foster child of the employee who resides in the employee’s household and is under the conservatorship of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services; and a minor child of the employee regardless of whether the child lives in the same household. Sick leave may be taken to care for members of an employee’s family who do not reside in the same household, only if the time taken is necessary to provide care to a spouse, child, or parent of the employee who needs care due to a documented medical condition. This provision for taking leave does not extend to an employee’s parents‑in‑law if they do not live in the same household.

2.4 "Licensed physician" means a person who is licensed to practice in one of the health professions set forth in Article 3.70-2 of the Texas Insurance Code.

2.5 "Pool administrator" means the person appointed to administer the sick leave pool.

2.6 "Sick leave pool" or "pool" means the accumulated sick leave donated by employees for utilization in accordance with this Policy.

3. POOL ADMINISTRATOR. This Policy shall be administered at each component institution by a pool administrator designated by the president and at the U. T. System Administration by a pool administrator designated by the Chancellor of the U. T. System.

3.1 The pool administrator shall adopt forms and regulations appropriate for the administration of this Policy.

3.2 The decision of the pool administrator regarding withdrawals from the sick leave pool shall be final.

4. SICK LEAVE POOL. The sick leave pool at each component institution and the U. T. System Administration shall consist of the sick leave voluntarily contributed to the pool by employees.

4.1 Contributions to the pool must be in units of eight (8) hours. State employees are permitted to contribute an unlimited number of hours to the sick leave pool. Retiring employees are also permitted to contribute to the sick leave pool and may do so in increments of less than eight (8) hours.

4.2 The pool administrator shall credit the sick leave pool with the sick leave contributed by an employee and shall direct the human resources office to deduct a corresponding amount from that employee’s accrued sick leave.

4.3 Sick leave contributed to the pool may not be designated for the use of a particular person.

4.4 Although contributions are voluntary, employees who leave State employment should be encouraged to contribute to the pool, unless there is a possibility that they will be reemployed by the State within twelve months and thereby eligible to have their sick leave balance restored.

5. WITHDRAWAL OF SICK LEAVE FROM THE POOL. Applications to withdraw sick leave from the pool must be submitted on the form prescribed by the pool administrator. An application must be filed with the pool administrator and must be accompanied by a statement from the licensed physician who treated the illness or injury that resulted in the exhaustion of the accrued annual leave and sick leave of the employee making the application. The pool administrator will consider applications in the order in which they are received and will approve or deny an application within ten (10) working days after receipt.

5.1 An employee is eligible to withdraw sick leave from the pool if the pool administrator finds that the employee has exhausted all accrued annual leave and sick leave because of a catastrophic illness or injury or because of a previous donation of sick leave to the pool.

5.2 In determining the amount of sick leave to be assigned to an eligible employee from the pool, the pool administrator shall take into consideration the information contained in the employee's application, the number of applications then pending, and the amount of sick leave available in the pool. In no event shall the sick leave allocated to an eligible employee from the pool exceed ninety (90) days or one-third (1/3) of the sick leave pool balance, whichever is less. Upon approval of an employee's application, the pool administrator shall notify the human resources office of the amount of sick leave to be assigned to the employee.

5.3 The employee may use sick leave assigned from the pool in the same manner as sick leave earned by the employee and shall be treated for all purposes as if the employee were absent on earned sick leave.

5.4 The estate of a deceased employee shall not be entitled to payment for unused sick leave assigned from the pool.

Last reviewed October 2001