2015 Arkansas Code
Title 21 - Public Officers and Employees
Chapter 4 - Attendance and Leave
Subchapter 2 - Uniform Attendance and Leave Policy Act
§ 21-4-214 - Catastrophic leave program.

(a) (1) The Department of Finance and Administration shall have administrative responsibility for developing, implementing, and maintaining a catastrophic leave bank program.

(2) Each state agency approved by the department to participate in the catastrophic leave bank program may establish a catastrophic leave bank for its employees, or the state agency may participate in a catastrophic leave bank to be administered by the Office of Personnel Management of the Division of Management Services of the Department of Finance and Administration.

(b) Accrued annual leave and sick leave of employees may be donated to a catastrophic leave bank.

(c) Catastrophic leave with pay may be granted to an employee when the employee is unable to perform his or her duties due to a catastrophic illness.

(d) An employee may be eligible for catastrophic leave when:

(1) (A) The employee has been employed by the state for more than two (2) years or was previously employed by a public school district or state-supported institution of higher learning for more than two (2) years.

(B) A person who was employed by a public school district or state-supported institution of higher learning for less than two (2) years also is eligible for catastrophic leave if:

(i) The person's combined years of employment with the state and with a public school district or state-supported institution of higher learning totals more than two (2) years; and

(ii) The lapse in the person's employment between the state and a public school district or state-supported institution of higher learning is less than six (6) months;

(2) (A) At the onset of the illness or injury the employee had to his or her credit at least eighty (80) hours of combined sick and annual leave and has exhausted all such leave, unless the combined sick and annual leave requirement is waived under subdivision (d)(2)(B) of this section.

(B) A state agency director or a president of an institution of higher education may waive the minimum eighty-hour requirement for combined sick and annual leave if the agency director determines that the employee warrants eligibility because of extraordinary circumstances under the standards and guidelines promulgated under subdivision (f)(2) of this section;

(3) An acceptable medical certificate from a physician supporting the continued absence is on file; and

(4) The employee has not been disciplined for any leave abuse during the past two (2) years.

(e) If the illness or injury is that of an employee and is covered by workers' compensation, the compensation based on catastrophic leave when combined with the weekly workers' compensation benefit received by the employee shall not exceed the compensation being received by the employee at the onset of the illness or injury.

(f) The Director of the Department of Finance and Administration, or the director's designee, shall promulgate rules and regulations:

(1) As deemed necessary to carry out the provisions of this section; and

(2) To prescribe the standards and guidelines of the extraordinary circumstances that the state agency director or the president of an institution of higher education may use to waive the minimum requirement for combined sick and annual leave.