South Carolina General Assembly
107th Session, 1987-1988

Bill 988


                    Current Status

Bill Number:               988
Ratification Number:       592
Act Number                 524
Introducing Body:          Senate
Subject:                   "Immediate family" redefined
View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.


(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A524, R592, S988)

AN ACT TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 9 TO CHAPTER 11, TITLE 8, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR A STATE EMPLOYEE LEAVE-TRANSFER PROGRAM UNDER WHICH THE SICK OR ANNUAL LEAVE, OR BOTH, OF AN EMPLOYEE MAY BE TRANSFERRED FOR USE BY ANOTHER EMPLOYEE IN THE CASE OF A PERSONAL EMERGENCY; AND TO AMEND SECTION 8-11-40, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO SICK LEAVE FOR STATE EMPLOYEES, SO AS TO REDEFINE "IMMEDIATE FAMILY".

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

"Immediate family" redefined

SECTION 1. The last paragraph of Section 8-11-40 of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 67 of 1987, is amended to read:

"Employees earning sick leave as provided in this section may use not more than five days of sick leave annually to care for ill members of their immediate families. For purposes of this section, 'immediate family' means a spouse, children, mother, father, a spouse's mother and father, legal guardian, a spouse's legal guardian, and grandchildren if the grandchild resides with the employee, and the employee is the primary caretaker of the grandchild."

State Employee Leave-Transfer Program

SECTION 2. Chapter 11, Title 8 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"Article 9

State Employee Leave-Transfer Program

Section 8-11-700. As used in this article:

(1) 'Employing agency' means the agency in which the leave recipient is employed.

(2) 'Leave donor' means an employee of an employing agency whose voluntary written request for transfer of annual or sick leave to the pool leave account of his employing agency is granted.

(3) 'Leave recipient' means an employee of an employing agency who has a personal emergency and is selected to receive annual or sick leave from the pool leave account of his employing agency.

(4) 'Personal emergency' means a medical or family emergency or other hardship situation that is likely to require an employee's absence from duty for a prolonged period of time and to result in a substantial loss of income to the employee because of the unavailability of paid leave.

(5) 'Division' means the Human Resource Management Division of the State Budget and Control Board.

Section 8-11-710. (A) Employees of a state agency may request leave from the pool leave account established in this article of his agency for a personal emergency in the manner and under the conditions authorized by this article.

(B) This leave request must be submitted to the employing agency and must be accompanied by the following information concerning the employee:

(1) the name, employing agency, position title, and classification of the employee; and

(2) a brief description of the nature, severity, and anticipated duration of the medical, family, or other hardship situation affecting the employee.

Section 8-11-720. In conformity with guidelines established by the division and following receipt of additional information it may require, the employing agency, subject to approval by the Budget and Control Board, may select leave recipients within the agency for participation in the leave-transfer program from among the potential leave recipients of the agency requesting leave under Section 8-11-710. The selections of the employing agency after Budget and Control Board approval are final, and there is no administrative or judicial appeal of the selections. Unless the personal emergency involves a medical condition affecting the leave recipient, the employing agency may consider the likely impact on morale and efficiency within the agency in considering a leave recipient's request to use transferred leave.

Section 8-11-730. (A) An employee of an employing agency may request voluntarily, in writing, that a specified number of hours of his accrued annual or sick leave or both be transferred from his annual or sick leave account to a pool account the agency establishes to distribute leave to leave recipients employed by the agency pursuant to this article, except that an employee with less than fifteen days in his sick leave account may not transfer any sick leave to the pool account, and an employee with more than fifteen days in his sick leave account may transfer sick leave to the pool account provided he retain a minimum of fifteen days in his own sick leave account. Once leave of an employee has been transferred to the pool account, it must not be restored or returned to the leave donor.

(B) Under procedures established by the division, the employing agency may transfer all or any portion of the annual leave in the pool account to the annual leave account of the leave recipient, and all or any portion of the sick leave in the pool account to the sick leave account of the leave recipient.

(C) Annual or sick leave transferred under this section may be substituted retroactively for periods of leave without pay or used to liquidate an indebtedness for advanced annual or sick leave granted.

Section 8-11-740. (A) Upon approval of his employer, a leave recipient may use annual or sick leave from the pool account established under Section 8-11-730 in the same manner and for the same purposes as if he had accrued the leave in the manner provided by law. Leave that accrues to the account of the leave recipient must be used before any transferred leave from the pool account.

(B) Transferred annual or sick leave from the pool account remaining to the credit of a leave recipient when the leave recipient's employment terminates must not be transferred to another employee, included in a lump-sum payment for accrued leave, or included in the recipient's total service for retirement computation purposes.

Section 8-11-750. (A) The personal emergency affecting a leave recipient terminates when the employing agency determines that the personal emergency no longer exists or the leave recipient's employment by the employing agency terminates.

(B) The employing agency shall monitor continuously the status of the personal emergency affecting the leave recipient and

establish procedures to ensure that the leave recipient is not permitted to receive or use transferred annual or sick leave from the pool account after the personal emergency ceases to exist.

(C) When the personal emergency affecting a leave recipient terminates, the employing agency may not grant any further requests for transfer of annual or sick leave from the pool account to the leave accounts of the leave recipient.

Section 8-11-760. Under procedures established by the division, any transferred annual or sick leave remaining to the credit of a leave recipient when the personal emergency affecting the leave recipient terminates must be restored to the pool account.

Section 8-11-770. The division shall require employing agencies to maintain records and report pertinent information to the division concerning the administration of the leave-transfer program for the purpose of evaluating the desirability, feasibility, and cost of the transfer program."

Time effective

SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.