Sick Time

Sick time can be taken when employees are unable to perform their job duties due to illness, injury, health condition, for physical or mental distress, or safety-related concerns. Sick time can also be used if an employee experiences a physical disability, which includes pregnancy and any pregnancy-related disability. Sick time is available for use as accrued. Under certain circumstances, an employees manager may request documentation from a treating clinician.

Eligibility

All staff and faculty employees, regardless of FTE or length of appointment, are eligible for sick time through Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time.

Accruals

• Staff with an FTE of 0.50 or greater accrue sick time at a rate of .0462 per compensated hour
• Staff with an FTE below 0.50 accrue 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked
• Faculty receive 80 hours of sick time per year

Table is reflective of a 1.00 FTE

	Hours Accrued per pay period	Annual Days Accrued	Max Carryover Hours
Bi-weekly Paid Staff	3.57	12	Unlimited
Bi-weekly Paid Public Safety/CBU	3.69	12	Unlimited
Monthly Paid Staff	7.75	12	Unlimited

Recording Hours

Staff employees record hours in their timesheet or leave report and will record the total hours used for that day. Recording of a full day will be equivalent to the number of hours the employee is normally scheduled to work on the day they select to use vacation.

Example 1: Quinn’s work schedule is not the same each day. They work 9 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, 5 hours on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 4 hours on Thursdays. Quinn has a doctor’s appointment on Thursday. Quinn would record 4 hours for Thursday per their normally scheduled shift.

Example 2: Andy is a 1.00 FTE and works a consistent schedule throughout the entire year. Andy’s child has an ear infection and will be taking a sick day on Thursday and Friday. When Andy reports their sick hours, they will report 7.75 hours per day for a total of 15.50 hours.

Examples of how employees may use their sick time:

Illness, injury, health conditions, and preventive care visits	Absence due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking
Mental health and personal well-being, including mental health days	Business, school, or child/adult day care facility closure
Diagnostic visits, care, or treatment

Employees may use their sick time to care for:

Themself	Grandparent or step grandparent
Biological, adoptive, or foster child and adult child	Child of a sibling of the employee (nieces/nephews)
Spouse or registered domestic partner	Siblings of the parents of the employee (aunts/uncles)
Sibling, stepsibling, or foster sibling	Child in law or sibling in law
Biological, adoptive, foster, or step parent	Any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship
Biological, adoptive, or foster grandchild	Up to one individual annually designated by the employee

Overall, employees can use sick time on any person they deem important in their life. Under certain circumstances, your manager or Human Resources may request a treating clinician’s statement, to include the nature of care being provided, the date the current illness or injury occurred, the date the treating clinician first saw the employee or family member, the date when the treating clinician expects the employee or family member to return to work, and any work restrictions, during any paid time away, or before allowing the employee to return to work.

Sick Time Payout

Unused sick time remaining at the time of departure from the College is not eligible for payout.

Sick Time Donation

Macalester College recognizes that employees may have a family medical emergency resulting in a need for additional time off in excess of their available time off benefits. To address this need, all eligible employees will be allowed to donate accrued paid sick time hours from their unused balance to a leave bank for their co-workers who are in need of additional time off.

Eligibility

• Donating employees must be employed with Macalester College for a minimum of one year to be eligible to donate.
• Receiving employees must be on an approved Family Medical Leave (FML) of absence through Human Resources and have exhausted their available time off benefits in order to receive time from the leave bank. 

Donating Sick Time

• The donation of sick time is strictly voluntary.
• Donated sick time will go into a leave bank for use by eligible recipients.
• The maximum number of sick hours that an eligible employee may donate per calendar year is 23.25 hours (24 hours for CBU and Public Safety), prorated by FTE.
• Donations must be made in whole day increments, accounting for the donating employees FTE (rounded to the nearest quarter hour). 
• The donating employee’s balance cannot fall below 77.50 hours (80 hours for CBU and Public Safety employees) due to the donation. 
• Employees may donate sick time anytime throughout the year. 
• To donate to the leave bank, an employee must fill out the Macalester College Sick Time Donation Form (Google Form). Once submitted, Human Resources will review the form and will deduct the donation amount from the eligible employee’s sick time balance.

Receiving Donated Sick Time

• HR is monitoring all Family Medical Leaves of Absences. If it is identified that an employee will exhaust their time off balances before the end of their leave, HR will connect with the employee about receiving donated sick hours. 
• If the recipient employee has available time off balances, that time will be used before any sick time will be applied to their available balances. 
• Donated sick time may only be used for time off for the approved FML.
• Employees who receive donated sick time may receive no more than three (3) weeks (116.25 hours for staff and 120.00 hours for CBU & Public Safety), prorated by FTE per FML occurrence.
• Nothing in this policy will be construed to limit or extend the maximum allowable absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act.