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Griffith
Taxpayers have long complained that Luzerne County workers receive excessive sick days, and now there’s evidence to bolster that claim.
The county workforce ended last year with 61,700 in unused sick days, according to an extensive review of year-end leave accrual records for 1,500 county employees.
Most county employees receive 15 to 18 sick days per year, and there’s no limit to the number of unused days they may stockpile for unforeseen illnesses down the road.
County records show 189 workers have saved up more than 100 days. Ten have more than 300, and two built up a cushion of more than 400 unused sick days.
Many private sector companies provide five or less sick days to workers annually, said county Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski, who often struggles when multiple workers are using vacation and sick days.
“Eighteen sick days – that’s a whole month. Plus you have holidays, personal and vacation time. Then in the meantime we have to cover time-sensitive work with a limited staff,” she said.
County Controller Walter Griffith also said the number of days off hampers his office’s ability to get work done. He appreciates workers who don’t abuse sick days and has no problem with the squirreling away of sick days for an emergency, but he thinks the number of sick days provided by the county each year is too high.
“If you’re sick, you’re sick, but I think there’s a fine line where you’re giving the workers too many sick days,” said county Controller Walter Griffith.
Gradual conversion
All three commissioners – Stephen A. Urban, Maryanne Petrilla and Thomas Cooney – say they support a gradual conversion of the workforce to 12 sick days annually.
Sick-day reductions must be negotiated into union contracts as they come up for renewal – a roadblock that won’t go away when the county switches to home rule government in January, Urban said.
Two of the county’s 11 unions have agreed to cap the annual sick day allotment at 12 for workers hired after specific dates in 2001, and a third union agreed to 13 days for those hired after 2006.
The county’s personnel policy governing hundreds of non-union workers limits the annual allotment to 12 for workers hired after Aug. 1, 2005.
The union covering transportation workers is the only one that has agreed to a significantly lower annual allotment – eight sick days.
Cooney said many companies in the private sector provide five to 10 sick days annually and restrict or ban unused days from being carried year to year.
While many workers are stashing unused days, the granting of too many sick days could also allow others to treat that time as additional vacation leave, Cooney said.
Records show 275 employees ended last year with one or no sick days remaining, the records show. The records, supplied by the controller’s office, did not include reports for the sheriff’s department.
“Sick leave is for sick leave. It’s not supposed to be used in lieu of vacation, and I fear sometimes that’s the case. However, it’s difficult to prove,” Cooney said.
County Human Resources Director Andy Check agrees with the movement toward 12 days but offered an argument for why the county should stay away from a use-it-or-lose-it sick day approach.
The county doesn’t provide short- or long-term disability insurance coverage that would provide workers with partial pay if they must take off an extended period of work for a serious illness – a benefit provided by some private-sector employers, Check said.
County employees may take extended time off for an illness under the Family & Medical Leave Act, or FMLA. Employees continue to receive health benefits on FMLA leave but are only paid if they have unused sick and vacation days, Check said.
Medico Olenginski also noted that many union workers have a different kind of insurance policy to help them get paid for an extended illness if they’ve exhausted their days: sick banks.
Sick day banks are pools of unused sick days donated by union employees to cover fellow workers who are ill but have used up their paid time.
The county “limits exposure” from the banking of unused sick days by setting a 60-day maximum on the number that may be cashed in when employees leave, Check said.
Employees may sell back at least 60 unused sick days when they leave county employment, receiving a flat fee or percentage of their daily pay rate.
Contract variation
One union contract governing rank-and-file employees requires the county to buy back 75 days, and prison union workers may sell back up to 125 days.
The number of employees who have reached the 60-day threshold, according to the payroll review: 349.
The lowest amount the county would have to pay to buy back these days is $35, which means the county is already on the hook for at least $732,900 for the 349 workers.
Most of the sick buy-backs amounts are $50 or more, which would put the county’s IOU at $1.05 million.
That amount will continue to rise as more employees pile up days, Griffith said.
“The workers should be allowed to bank it in case they get sick, but not to bank it and get paid later,” Griffith said.