§ 3. Vacation leave.

Each regularly employed full-time employee shall earn vacation leave at the rate of one (1) working day per month of continuous service, provided that the maximum vacation leave earned during one (1) year by such employee shall not exceed twelve (12) days; and provided further, that such employee shall, on the anniversary date of his employment, be credited with one (1) additional day of vacation leave for each full year of continuous service over five (5) years, provided that such additional longevity vacation leave for any employee shall not exceed the number of working days in two (2) of his regular workweeks.

Employees in those job classes designated in Rule VI, The Compensation Plan, as management classes, shall on January 1st of each year be credited with additional vacation leave according to applicable provisions of the city pay plan ordinances.

For purposes of vacation leave uniformed members of the fire department shall be considered as working a five-day week.

Members of the uniformed services of the police and fire departments and such other employees required to be on regular duty on legal holidays and who receive no additional compensation for holiday work shall be credited with additional vacation leave equal to the number of legal holidays listed in these rules and such other days as may be designated by the city commission. These additional vacation days will be credited in the month the holiday occurs.

In computing vacation leave earned only those months shall be counted during which an employee has worked three-quarters or more of his regular work days. Days worked shall include days for which leave with pay was authorized. (Upon conversion to the hourly leave accrual method, this provision will no longer apply - see below).

Vacation leave may be taken as earned subject to the approval of the department head who shall schedule vacations so as to meet the operating requirements of the department; provided, that vacation leave shall not be granted to employees with less than six (6) months of continuous service.

Employees may accrue vacation leave to a maximum of the leave earned in two (2) anniversary years. In the event an employee has been unable to take advantage of vacation leave as earned, with the result that said employee has accumulated the maximum, he may absent himself from work, after giving his supervisor three (3) days' notice, in order to prevent the loss of vacation leave beyond the maximum. The conversion of personal holidays to vacation leave described in Section 2 of this rule does not increase the maximum amount of vacation leave employees will be paid for upon termination of city employment. For example, employees with a current maximum vacation accrual of 44 days (12 vacation days each year for two anniversary years plus 10 longevity vacation days for two anniversary years) or 352 hours (44 days x 8 hours for each vacation and longevity vacation day earned) will remain at that maximum vacation leave payout amount.

Provisional and temporary employees shall be entitled to the same vacation leave allowance to which regular employees are entitled in accordance with the provisions of this section.

Part-time employees shall not be entitled to vacation leave.

Employees who have completed six (6) or more months of service shall upon leaving the city's service in good standing, be compensated for vacation leave accrued to the date of separation.

The previously described daily vacation leave accrual system shall remain in effect until such time that the City implements an updated payroll/human resources computer system and converts to an hourly leave accrual system. The conversion is not intended to change the amount of leave an employee is eligible to earn in a given time period; the purpose of the change is to simplify the administration of the leave accrual program.

Upon conversion to the hourly leave accrual program, employees will be credited with any longevity vacation leave earned, but not posted, as of the date of implementation. As stated in Section 2 of this Rule, upon conversion to the hourly leave accrual program, personal holidays shall be converted to vacation leave for ease of administration. In the event that these conversions result in an employee exceeding the maximum allowable accrued vacation leave, such leave shall not be forfeited immediately. Affected employees shall have six (6) months from the date of conversion to utilize the excess leave. If the excess leave is not utilized within the six (6) month period, it shall be forfeited consistent with the other provisions of this rule. Also, because employees will be earning vacation leave based upon paid work hours in a month, the requirement that employees work three-quarters (3/4) or more of the workdays in a month to accrue vacation leave for that month will no longer apply. Employees not in a pay status for all work hours in a month will simply earn less than the full allotment of vacation leave for that month.

•ln the event the city requires employees to take unpaid furlough leave due to the financial condition of the city, such unpaid furlough leave will not impact the accrual of vacation leave.

(Res. No. 8214, § 12, 8-1-61; Res. No. 9140, § 1, 11-26-63; Res. No. 9660, § 1, 3-2-65; Res. No. 73-221, § 1, 6-19-73; Res. No. 74-193, § 1, 7-16-74; Res. No. 77-423, § 1, 12-13-77; Res. No. 78-23, § 1, 1-17-78; Res. No. 78-130, § 1, 4-18-78; Res. No. 78-230, §§ 1—3, 7-11-78; Res. No. 80-285, § 1, 10-21-80; Res. No. 83-6, § 1, 1-18-83; Res. No. 83-171, § 1, 7-6-83; Res. No. 91-211, § 1, 10-1-91; Res. No. 03-192 , § 1, 12-16-03)