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Home My Public Portal About01.5 - 2021-1 - SICK LEAVE, FMLA & OTHER PERSONNEL MATTERS ORDINANCE 2021-1 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING AN ORDINANCE ADDRESSING SICK LEAVE,FMLA AND OTHER PERSONNEL MATTERS DURING A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY WHEREAS,on March 25, 2020, the Common Council adopted Ordinance 2020-3, and Ordinance Addressing Sick Leave, FMLA and Other Personnel Matters During a Public Health Emergency; WHEREAS, Congress passed the "Families First Coronavirus Response Act"(the Act), and the Emergency Paid Sick Time Act on March 18, 2020, amending the Family and Medical Leave Act and providing paid leave for certain employees for specified times, during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Said Act expired December 31, 2020; WHEREAS, the Center for Disease Control and local health officials continue to recommend self-quarantine at home for anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 in order to slow or stop the spread of the virus; WHEREAS, the City maintains a sick bank of donated unused sick time for employees that face extraordinary and extenuating circumstances due to illness or injury or for employees who have failed to accumulate paid sick leave, vacation leave, personal leave or compensatory time off; WHEREAS, the City wishes to expand the City's personnel policies extend its Sick Leave Bank to employees for certain Covid-related absences. NOW THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED THAT THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GREENCASTLE hereby orders that the provisions of Ordinance 2020-3 are hereby amended and/or repealed as follows: 1. Stay At Home Order. If an employee meets the conditions in one of the five classes listed below,the employee will be ordered to stay home from work: a. The United States, State of Indiana or City of Greencastle is subject to a quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19; b. The employee has been advised by a health care provider or public health official to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19; c. The employee is experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis; d. The employee has been exposed to someone who either has the underlying condition or exhibits symptoms of the underlying condition but has not tested positive; e. The employee is caring for or resides with a person described in subsections b.,c., and d.,above;or f. The Mayor or Clerk-Treasurer determines that the employee should stay at home for the health or safety of the employee or the health or safety of other employees or the public. An employee will not be allowed to return to work until it is determined that he/she does not present a health risk of the underlying condition of the declared pandemic or public health emergency. 2. Telework. The Mayor and the Clerk-Treasurer,may require certain employees(e.g.non- critical or non-essential)to refrain from coming to their work stations if work can be performed at home. In such case,the employee is expected to perform those job functions from home during the employee's regularly scheduled non-overtime work hours. The employee must be available by phone to respond to calls from other City officials and must be available to return to his/her work station within two(2)hours of notice from his/her supervisor,Mayor,Clerk-Treasurer,or his/her designee. The employee may not work or earn compensation from any other source during the employee's regularly scheduled non-overtime work hours. Employees shall document their time worked and work performed on forms prescribed by the Clerk-Treasurer. 3. Flex-Time and Additional Duties. In order to protect the health and safety of employees, and/or maintain operations of the City during this emergency health crisis, it may become necessary to adjust employees' schedules and assign additional job duties. a. Flex-time. The Mayor,Clerk-Treasurer and Department Heads have the authority to "flex"or change an employee's schedule in order to limit the number of employees at the workplace at any given time,or to otherwise accommodate the operations of the City.The employee is required to work the new schedule unless the employee is taking approved leave. b. Additional Duties. The Mayor,Clerk-Treasurer and Department Heads have the authority to assign additional duties to an employee which may,or may not be related to the employee's current position in order to maintain the operations of the City. The employee is required to perform the additional duties as assigned. 4. Emergency Closings. a. Emergency Building Closure. Until April 7,2020,access to all City buildings, offices and facilities by the public is restricted to only those members of the public needing to conduct services essential to public health and safety which cannot otherwise be conducted electronically,telephonically and/or delayed. The Mayor has the authority to extend this deadline. b. Emergency Stay Home Pay. The Mayor or the Clerk-Treasurer may order that certain,or all,employees shall stay at home regardless of whether there is work for them to do at home. For those who do not have jobs that can be performed at home or other duties assigned to them under subsection 3.b.,above,they will receive pay for their regularly scheduled non-overtime work-hours(Emergency Stay Home Pay). If any of the employee's job functions can be performed from home,the employee is expected to perform those job functions from home during the employee's regularly scheduled non-overtime work hours. During the employee's regularly scheduled non- overtime work hours during the emergency,the employee is considered"on-call"and, therefore,must be available by phone to respond to calls from other City officials and must be available to return to their work station within two(2)hours of notice from his/her supervisor,the Mayor,or Clerk-Treasurer or their designees. The employee may not work or earn compensation from any other source during the employee's regularly scheduled non-overtime work hours. Emergency Stay Home Pay shall not be available when an employee qualifies for other types of Leave described herein. 5. Sick Bank. Full time employees who have already contributed to the Shared Leave Bank pursuant to the Employee Manual may first use up to 240 Sick Bank hours for direct Covid-related illness of the employee,or a relative living in the household of the employee who needs care and cannot be left alone. This includes time associated with being quarantined and/or awaiting test results as well as time afflicted with the COVID-19. Hours may be taken consecutively or intermittently;however, the maximum number of hours of Sick Bank time that may be taken under this provision is a total of 240 hours. This provision does not apply to staying at home due to school closures;regular sick, personal and vacation benefit time can be used for that purpose.The terms of FMLA continue to apply for employees who will miss more than five(5)days(see FMLA policy in the Employee Handbook). 6. Vacation Time Accrual. Due to the dangerous nature of COVID-19,many employees have had to cancel vacations;others may have vacation requests denied due to the operational needs of the City. For those reasons, Section 303 of the City of Greencastle Employee Handbook,which requires employees to take all vacation leave within a 12-month period, and limits the number of vacation hours an employee may accumulate,is hereby waived. Employees may continue to accumulate hours in excess of the limits and shall have until June 30,2021 to use any days that exceed the hours allowed under Section 303. The City shall revert to the original language in Section 303 on July 1,2021,and any hours exceeding the amount allowed on that date shall be lost and shall not carry forward. 7. General. a. Employees shall continue to accrue sick,vacation and personal days during any leave taken described herein. b. The Mayor and the Clerk-Treasurer have the authority to administer this Ordinance and to create policies and guidelines for implementation and to otherwise create policies to address the public health emergency caused by or related to COVID-19, that are not inconsistent with this or other City Ordinances. c. The Clerk-Treasurer shall implement policies and provide employee directives for proper time-keeping to accommodate the above changes during the public health emergency. d. If any provision contained herein is,or becomes, inconsistent with Federal laws,that provision is hereby repealed, in which case,the remainder of the Ordinance shall remain if full force and effect. e. This ordinance shall terminate and shall be automatically repealed on June 30,2021. This Ordinance hereby amends any sections of the City of Greencastle Employee Handbook or any other City Ordinance,Resolution,policy or procedure which is in conflict with this Ordinance. All other terms and provisions within the Employee Handbook shall remain in full force and effect. PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Common Council of the City of Greencastle at its Emergency Regular Meeting this ///A day of FFg , 2021. COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GREENCASTLE, INDIANA w'lC /V, Mar Hammer Y1444.1.444( Adam Cohen �\ I 7 --A Lr//._/. /117 J41101,, S�rcie Langdon Veronica Pejril ►�av• urray U Jacob Widner Cody Eckert Approved and signed by me this 104' day of Fie, ,2021 at T•t 5-o'clock .m. / t1Z/, William A. Dory,Jr., ayor " Attest: /62------- Ly a Dunbar,Clerk-Treasurer