Amy N Kaplan

Purpose

Employees may be granted sick leave when they are unable to perform their duties because of personal illness or injury, or illness within their immediate family, or because they must be absent from work for the purpose of obtaining health-related professional services that cannot be obtained after regular working hours.

Eligibility

Employees are not eligible to take paid sick time until they have worked for the Company for 90 days from their date of hire.

All regular, full-time, exempt employees are eligible for ten (10) days paid sick leave per calendar year.

All regular, part-time, non-exempt employees are eligible for ten (10) days unpaid sick leave per calendar year.

Scheduling and notification

Employees are required to notify their supervisor at least two (2) hours beforehand. Employees will generally be required to submit a certification from their treating licensed medical care practitioner upon returning to work after an absence of three (3) consecutive days or more. Employees will be required to provide a release from their medical care practitioner to return to work if the employee is hospitalized for 24 hours or more or for outpatient surgery.

Employees who do not communicate with their supervisor or manager for three consecutive days of absence may be considered as having abandoned their jobs and subject to termination.

Qualifying Reasons for Paid Sick Leave

Paid sick time can be used for the following reasons:

• Diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition for an employee or covered family member, as defined below.
• Preventive care for an employee or an employee’s covered family member.
• For certain, specified purposes when the employee is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.

For purposes of paid sick leave, a covered family member includes:

• A child defined as a biological, foster or adopted child; a stepchild; or a legal ward, regardless of the age or dependency status of the child.
• A “parent” defined as a biological, foster or adoptive parent; a stepparent; or a legal guardian of an employee or the employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner.
• A spouse.
• A registered domestic partner.
• A grandparent.
• A grandchild.
• A sibling.

Abusing Sick Leave

Managers or supervisors who believe that an employee may be abusing sick leave or is claiming sick leave under false pretense(s) may require evidence of illness or injury in the form of a statement from a physician or other medical certification. The Company reserves the right to grant temporary approval of a sick leave, subject to the receipt of sufficient evidence of illness or injury. Evidence of abuse of Company sick leave is grounds for disciplinary action, including termination.

Employees who claim sick leave for the purpose of applying for another job, working a second job, or any other activity that is not illness- or injury-related shall be considered to be engaging in misconduct and dishonest behavior and may be subject to immediate termination.

Minimum sick leave time increments
Employees must take sick leave time in increments of at least one hour. It is each supervisor’s responsibility to monitor such absences and to ensure that they do not become excessive in relation to the hours worked by the employee.

Unused sick leave
An employee may not carry forward unused sick leave.

Termination of employment
Unused sick time accrued will not be made payable to employees upon leaving the service of the Company, regardless of the reason for termination. Payment for sick days is not considered as time worked in the computation of overtime.

Pay in lieu of sick leave
The company will not pay employees for unused sick leave.