The director is authorized to establish a sick leave
insurance program (program) for employees. The program shall allow eligible
employees to convert a portion of their sick leave balance at retirement into a
sick leave bank with which the state will pay the state's share of retiree
health insurance. Employees of the department of natural resources or
department of public safety who are classified as peace officers and are not
covered by a collective bargaining agreement shall receive benefits at
retirement consistent with the provisions of the negotiated collective
bargaining agreement with the State Police Officers Council. The benefits for
sick leave banks earned by all department of public safety peace officer
employees shall be administered by the department of public safety.
(1) To be eligible to participate in the
program, the employee must be employed on or after July 1, 2006, and must
retire under a retirement system in the state maintained in whole or in part by
public contributions or payment prior to reaching Medicare eligibility.
a. Participation in the program ceases when
any one of the following occurs:
(1) The
employee's sick leave balance is exhausted;
(2) The employee reaches Medicare
eligibility;
(3) The employee
terminates participation in the state's group insurance program;
(4) The employee returns to permanent
employment with the state;
(5) The
employee fails to pay any required amount; or
(6) The employee dies.
b. A deceased employee's sick leave bank is
not transferable to another person, including a spouse.
(2) Upon a participating employee's
termination of employment, the employee's sick leave hours are multiplied by
the employee's regular hourly wage. The employee receives up to $2,000 of this
amount on the employee's final paycheck. The remainder is multiplied by a
conversion factor, and that amount is placed into the employee's sick leave
bank. The conversion factors are as follows: If an employee has up to 750
hours, the rate is 60 percent; if an employee has over 750 hours and up to
1,500 hours, the rate is 80 percent; and if the employee has more than 1,500
hours, the rate is 100 percent. The employee's sick leave balance before
payment of up to $2,000 is used to determine the number of hours an employee
has for conversion purposes. The amounts placed into the employee's sick leave
bank have no cash value, other than for purposes of paying the state's share of
retiree health insurance premiums under this program. The value of sick leave
hours for peace officer employees of the department of natural resources and
the department of public safety shall be calculated in the same manner as for
those employees covered by the collective bargaining agreement with the State
Police Officers Council.
(3)
Rescinded IAB 5/27/15, effective 7/1/15.
(4) To participate in the program, an
employee must complete a sick leave insurance program enrollment form upon
retirement. Upon commencement of participation in the program, the employee may
choose to continue the employee's current health insurance plan selection or
may choose any other state group health plan whose total cost is the same or
lower than the total cost of the current plan selection. Except for employees
eligible for benefits negotiated consistent with the collective bargaining
agreement negotiated with the State Police Officers Council, employees may not
apply the sick leave balance to a private insurance plan.
Notes
Iowa Admin. Code r.
11-64.16
Amended by
IAB
May 27, 2015/Volume XXXVII, Number 24, effective
7/1/2015
Amended by
IAB
July 19, 2017/Volume XL, Number 2, effective
7/1/2017
