City commissioners adopt sick leave donation policy

IRONWOOD — A policy in which a city of Ironwood employee can donate sick leave time to a fellow worker was approved by the city commission on Monday.

City treasurer Paul Linn said the city had nothing in writing on sharing sick leave and he researched about a dozen other communities before coming up with a suggested policy.

Mayor Kim Corcoran said it would be good to allow employees to help out each other.

Linn said he didn’t expect many employee requests under the new policy and added that city manager Scott Erickson would need to approve any donation of sick time.

The policy pertains only for another employee’s illness and not to cover sicknesses of family members who aren’t city employees.

Employees in need must first use all of their paid sick, vacation and personal leave time before they can receive a time donation from another worker.

Up to six weeks of paid sick time may be received per fiscal year.

The employee who donates the sick time must have more than 240 hours of sick leave accumulated to be eligible, according to the policy.

Another provision of the policy notes that the ability to receive donated sick leave does not extend an employee’s 12-week entitlement under Family Medical Leave. Also, donated sick time may not be used during time off under the worker’s compensation statute.

Responding to a question from a commissioner, Linn said he didn’t think that employees would abuse the new policy. He emphasized that the city manager has final control over approving the donation of sick time.