To join the State Employees’ Leave Bank, employees must donate eight hours of sick, annual or personal leave or a combination thereof. Current State employees may join or renew their membership in the Leave Bank during open enrollment, which occurs at the same time as the State’s health insurance open enrollment period. New employees may join within the first 60 days of employment or during open enrollment. Membership is for a two-year period and may be renewed by donating an additional eight hours of leave. Please check with your Personnel Office if you have questions about your Leave Bank eligibility or membership.
Requests for leave from the Leave Bank are evaluated in accordance with the following criteria:
• The employee must be an active member of the Leave Bank;
• The employee must have a serious and prolonged medical condition;
• The employee must have exhausted all forms of annual, sick, personal and compensatory leave;
• The employee must provide sufficient medical documentation to substantiate absence for the time period covered by the Leave Bank request;
• The employee must qualify for the use of sick leave under the requirements of the employee’s personnel system;
• There must be a likelihood that the employee will be able to return to work;
• The employee must not have a record of sick leave abuse (i.e., the employee must not have been on a one-day sick slip restriction within the past two years);
• The employee must have received a satisfactory performance rating;
• The employee must not have been disciplined within the past year;
• The employee must have received less than 2,080 hours of leave from the Leave Bank and the Employee-to-Employee Leave Donation Programs; and
• The employee must not have used more than 16 continuous months of leave from the Leave Bank and all other forms of paid leave.
Approval to use leave from the Leave Bank is discretionary, and denial may be based on any reason that is consistently applied and is not illegal or unconstitutional.
To request leave from the Leave Bank, members must complete a State Employees’ Leave Bank Request Form (MS-408). Members must also have their physician complete a State Employees’ Leave Bank Medical Request Form (MS-402) and provide medical records that address the absence for which Leave Bank is requested. Leave Bank forms are available from your Personnel Office or may be downloaded from the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM’s) website at www.dbm.maryland.gov. The forms and medical documentation should be submitted to your Personnel Office for review and certification. Your Personnel Office will submit the Leave Bank request to DBM for consideration. DBM shall issue a written determination approving or denying the Leave Bank request within 30 days of receipt.
If an employee exhausts accrued leave before DBM makes its determination, the employee shall be automatically granted leave until a decision is rendered. If an employee is automatically granted leave and the request is subsequently denied, any leave used must be converted to leave without pay. The employee shall reimburse the State at the minimum rate of one half of all sick leave earned. At the employee’s discretion, additional sick leave and any accrued annual, personal or compensatory leave may be applied to the reimbursement, or the employee may elect to make cash payments.
(Revised 3/26/09)