Opinion ID: 1967375
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Proposal for Pooling Sick Leave.

Text: The next proposal for our consideration provides: H. Sick Leave Bank 1. Establishment A Sick Leave Bank will be established for the use of employees who choose to participate. Use of Sick Leave Bank days will commence on the first day after accumulated Sick Leave is exhausted and will continue until the end of the year or until the employee becomes eligible for long term disability insurance. The Bank year will be the contract year. 2. Participation Participation in the Sick Leave Bank will be on a voluntary basis and each participating individual employee's contribution will be made in the form of one (1) day of Sick Leave from his/her current year's allocation. The days contributed to the Bank become the property of the Bank and will not be returned to the employee, except under paragraph 5 below. 3. Enrollment Enrollment will take place during opening workshop but in no case later than September 15 and will entitle the enrolling employee to membership until revoked in writing by the employee. 4. Unused Days in Bank Assets of the Bank will accumulate, but the maximum carry over is 300 days. The following year's Bank will consist of the days carried over from the previous year in addition to all contributed days for the year's participation. The Board will provide the Association with a verification of the Bank's total number of days for the current year and of the previous year's usage of Bank days by no later than September 30 of each year. 5. Use of Leave Bank Days Use of Sick Leave Bank days will be on a daily use basis; e.g., each eligible employee will draw each day until the total Bank Leave days have been exhausted. An eligible employee is one who has timely volunteered for participation in the Sick Leave Bank and who as a result of a long-term disability of at least 10 consecutive days, has exhausted his/her personal Sick Leave without being eligible for long term disability, worker's compensation, and/or social security disability. Use of Sick Leave Bank shall be limited to those absences where a medical doctor verifies the illness of disability. The district court concluded the proposal was a subject of mandatory bargaining because it related to leaves of absence. Although the school district does not challenge the conclusion that sick leave involves a leave of absence, it urges that the proposal may not be made a subject of mandatory bargaining because it is contrary to law. Iowa Code section 279.40 refers to the receipt and use of sick leave days by Iowa public school employees. It provides in part: Public school employees are granted leave of absence for medically related disability with full pay in the following minimum amounts: [ten days to fifteen days increasing annually during the first six years of employment]. . . . . The above amounts ... shall be cumulative to at least a total of ninety days. The school board shall, in each instance, require such reasonable evidence as it may desire confirming the necessity for such leave of absence. Nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the right of a school board to grant more time than the days herein specified.... Iowa Code § 279.40. The school district argues that the last sentence of the second paragraph, which we have quoted above, mandates that sick leave is inextricably tied to the individual employee involved and must be based on a health-related leave of absence for that employee that has been verified by the employer. Based on that interpretation, the school district urges that an employee's sick leave is not assignable to another employee. We are not persuaded by this argument. It is significant, in our view, that section 279.40 does not fix a limit with respect to the sick leave that may be granted to an individual employee. It only prescribes a minimum amount of sick leave. Iowa Code section 279.13 provides that [c]ontracts with teachers ... shall be in writing and shall state [number of working days and compensation] and any other matters as may be mutually agreed upon. (Emphasis added.) This statute appears to give broad discretion to school boards in contracting for employee benefits. The bargaining topic that is disputed here is clearly a topic of mandatory bargaining under the category of leaves of absence unless it is contrary to law. We are unable to conclude that the innovative method of sick leave allocation that has been proposed by the employee organization is foreclosed by law. Accordingly, we affirm the district court's conclusion that this involves a mandatory topic of bargaining. We have considered all issues presented and conclude that the judgment of the district court must be reversed with respect to the proposal affecting time and place of wage payment and the proposal for allowing additional compensation to employees teaching more than 300 minutes per day. It is affirmed as to the proposals on employee evaluations and the pooling of sick leave. AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.