Sick Leave

Full-time

All full-time regular employees, including 9-month faculty, accrue paid sick leave. Sick leave can be used for personal illness, injury, medical appointments, or to care for a family member (spouse, dependents, parents, or in-laws).

Employees on the Springfield campus do not need to use sick leave for appointments at on-campus healthcare providers, including:

  • Magers Health and Wellness Center
  • Physical Therapy Clinic
  • Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic
  • Magers Pharmacy

For off-campus appointments, sick leave may be used for paid time off, as outlined in section 7.2.2.

Sick leave can be used concurrently with FMLA for family care due to illness, injury, or childbirth (see section 7.7). Sick leave may also be used for personal leave as specified in policy section 7.6.

Accrual

Sick leave accrues at eight hours per pay period (one day) with no limit on the number of days that can be accrued or carried forward.

This accrual rate applies to full-time, 12-month appointments. Staff with less than 12-month appointments (e.g., nine-month positions) will accrue sick leave on a prorated basis (e.g., 72 hours or nine days per year for nine-month appointments).

Employees must work a minimum of 80 hours per pay period to accrue leave. Employees who terminate, retire, or are off work due to a work-related injury or illness will accrue vacation for the month of termination/retirement/leave, provided they have worked 80 hours that pay period. Partial monthly accruals are not allowed.

Using sick leave

Sick leave can only be taken after it is accrued and recorded at the end of each month. It cannot be taken in advance.

Sick leave will be recorded in quarter-hour increments. Absences under 15 minutes will count as a quarter hour.

For employees working four 10-hour days per week, 10 hours of sick leave will be deducted from their balance for each day of sick leave taken.

Employees must promptly notify their supervisor if they are unable to work due to illness (see Section 9.2.1 for absence policy). A supervisor may require a doctor's statement or other proof of illness or injury.

Supervisors may also require a release to return to work and proof of illness for employees with frequent absences or a history of sick leave misuse.

Unused sick leave applied at retirement

Employees who terminate employment but do not retire are not eligible for payment of unused sick leave. Eligible employees who retire under one of the university’s public retirement plans will receive payment for 40% of their accrued unused sick leave, rounded to the nearest full day, with a maximum payout of 384 hours (48 days). Any remaining unused sick leave will be reported to MOSERS as creditable service, in accordance with its reporting policies.

The Missouri State Employees' Retirement System (MOSERS) requires the university to report the number of unused sick leave hours an employee has at the time of their termination. If the employee is vested in MOSERS at termination, these hours will be converted into retirement service credit at a rate of 168 hours per month of service. When the employee later applies for retirement, MOSERS will factor this additional service credit into the calculation of their retirement benefit.

Faculty with 9-month appointments who retire under MOSERS or CURP are not eligible for payment for accrued but unused sick leave. For those retiring under MOSERS, the full balance of their unused sick leave will be reported to MOSERS for service credit. Faculty members retiring under CURP will not receive service credit for unused sick leave.

A retirement is considered qualified when an employee is entitled to and begins receiving a monthly retirement benefit from one of the university’s retirement plans, such as MOSERS.