The university has a Sick Leave Bank (SLB) to provide members who are experiencing serious illnesses an opportunity to request additional paid leave from the bank after they have exhausted all personal accrued leave.
From April through June each year, employees can enroll in the sick leave bank. To join, employees must have accrued a minimum of 48 hours sick leave and donate 24 of those hours to the SLB. Members who need to use this benefit can apply to the Sick Leave Bank Committee, which can grant up to 90 paid sick leave days per fiscal year.
Members using time from the bank receive their normal pay and continue to accrue sick and annual leave. As one employee put it, "After being diagnosed with a serious illness, it was a great relief to know that my income, benefits and job were secure."
Sick Leave Bank is based on policy number HR0382. For information, contact Ashley Jones at 974-6018 or e-mail ljones1@utk.edu.
This is part of series of Human Resources Knoxville stories planned for Tennessee Today this summer. Tennessee Today appears each Tuesday and Thursday throughout the summer and every workday during the Fall and Spring semesters.