Benefits for Management & Confidential Employees of Tompkins County. 5/1/2001

Management and Confidential employee benefits most closely follow those for CSEA White Collar employees. However, there are some differences and this document is intended to more clearly define Management and Confidential benefits. It also includes information that may be useful in administering general department matters as they relate to hiring and benefits.

Benefits Applicability

Employees appointed on a permanent or provisional basis who are appointed to work less than 33% of the time on an annualized basis (86 work days per year), shall not receive any of the following benefits: health insurance, personal time, disability, vacation time, bereavement pay and holiday pay. Persons working 33% to 49% of the full-time equivalent shall not be eligible to sign up for health insurance but shall receive prorated benefits. Persons working 50% and over of the full-time equivalent shall be eligible to sign up for health insurance and will receive prorated benefits.

Work Week and Time Cards

The standard work week shall be a minimum of 35 hours and a maximum of 40 hours as established by the department head. Offices required to be open to the public must maintain adequate staffing between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.

Newly hired employees will accept the standard work week of the department. Department Heads may approve flexible work hours for their employees. Once approved, flex hours/days will not be withdrawn without notification from the department head, in writing at least two weeks prior to the date of change, unless the employee voluntarily waives the notification period.

Time cards are to be completed and submitted for each pay cycle. The time card is intended to be an accurate reflection of actual time worked as well as documentation of fringe time used. Each Management and Confidential employee must account for all hours in their standard work week.

Holidays

The County observes 12 paid holidays each year; eleven traditional holidays and one floating holiday. The floating holiday must be prior approved by department heads or their designee, must be requested by December 1 of each year and must be taken before the end of the last pay period each calendar year. A holiday schedule is published each year by the Personnel Department. Observed holidays are:

New Year’s Day Columbus Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Veteran’s Day

President’s Day Thanksgiving Day

Memorial Day Day After Thanksgiving Day

Independence Day Christmas Day

Labor Day Floating Holiday

Vacation

Full-time employees are eligible to take paid vacation after six months employment with the County. However, employees shall start to accumulate vacation credit as of their date of employment based on total years of service with the County as follows:

Accrued Vacation Maximum

At Least But Less Than (Days/Month) Granted/Year

1 month 5 years 5/6 10

5 years 8 years 1-1/4 15

8 years 10 years 1-1/3 16

10 years 12 years 1-5/12 17

12 years 14 years 1-1/2 18

14 years 15 years 1-7/12 19

15 years+ 1-2/3 20

Employees with accumulated vacation equal to three (3) years of vacation entitlement will stop accumulating vacation time and will start accumulating when the vacation balance goes below the three (3) year maximum accumulation. All vacation calculations are prorated for part-time employees.

Personal Leave

  1. Each continuing full-time Management and Confidential employee shall be credited with six (6) days of personal leave on the first day of the first payroll period of each year.
  2. Each employee hired after the first pay period of the payroll year shall be credited (on their anniversary date) with one (1) day of personal leave per month for their first six (6) months of employment or until the first payroll period of the next calendar year.
  3. Personal leave may be used for any reason. Requests for personal leave should be submitted for approval to the immediate supervisor at least 24 hours in advance whenever circumstances permit. This leave shall not be unduly denied; however, the supervisor shall have the right to limit the number of employees on leave at any one time.
  4. Personal leave can be accumulated to a maximum of 12 days.
  5. Employees on unpaid leave of absence shall not accumulate personal leave time during the unpaid leave.
  6. Any personal leave benefits will be prorated for employees working less than full time.
Notwithstanding any of the above, all employees appointed on a permanent or provisional basis to work less than 33% of the time on an annualized basis (86 work days per year) shall not receive personal leave time.

Disability Leave and Sick Leave

  1. Disability leave covers personal illness documented by a doctor’s, dentist’s or eye doctor’s note explaining the illness or incapacity and the expected length of absence. Disability leave is granted with full pay at the employee’s regular rate, exclusive of shift premium.
  2. Disability shall be credited to each employee on their date of hire or adjusted hire date based on total time in service with Tompkins County:

    3.  

     

    Less than five years 75 days

    At least five years 115 days

  3. For the first occurrence of disability use, the first three days of any period of inability to work must be covered by another fringe unless it is caused by scheduled or emergency surgery, or by emergency hospitalization. For any additional occurrence of the same illness in the same year, the first day of inability to work must be covered by another fringe unless it is caused by scheduled or emergency surgery, or by emergency hospitalization.
If an employee is restricted to part-time work by a physician, the employee shall be entitled to part-time disability after the equivalent of three part-time days have been covered by another fringe for the first occurrence in a year, and one part-time day equivalent for each additional occurrence of the same illness in the same year.

4) Requests for paid disability must be made by submitting a completed Claim for Benefits form to Personnel no later than Monday following the end of the pay period in which disability is requested. A completed claim form must be submitted for every pay period that disability is claimed. In no instance will disability be granted for periods prior to a doctor’s visit, and untimely receipt of a claim form will delay onset of disability payments. It is the employee’s responsibility to be sure the claim form is submitted in a timely way.

5) Employees may use existing sick leave entitlements earned prior to the implementation of this policy up to a maximum of five (5) days prior to needing a doctor’s statement. The employee may also use remaining sick leave entitlements to extend disability benefits once they have been exhausted.

6) An employee’s total disability days off may not exceed the above totals in any consecutive 52-week period. Such 52-week period is deemed to begin on the date of the first use of disability time.
 
 
 
 
  1. Disability leave shall not accrue while an employee is on disability leave or on any unpaid leave of absence. Further, employees returning from disability leave who have exhausted their disability benefit shall be required to work six (6) consecutive months before being eligible for disability leave again.
  2. The County may provide the above disability leave insurance either through self-insurance or a private insurance carrier.
  3. The County shall have the right at its discretion to verify the report of an attending physician concerning the illness or disability of an employee and may also require the employee to be examined, at the County’s expense, by another physician selected by the County to determine the nature and extent of the illness or disability. As a result of such physician’s statements and examinations, the County may approve or deny an employee’s disability leave request and establish limits and conditions for any further approval of disability leave connected with the same illness or disability.
  4. Disability leave benefits will be prorated for employees working less than full time. Any employee appointed on a permanent or provisional basis to work less than 33% of the time on an annualized basis (86 work days per year) shall not receive disability leave pay.
Compensation

Starting salaries for Management and Confidential employees are determined by the labor grade assigned to each job description. Most new employees are paid the ‘hiring’ rate and move to the ‘working’ rate at no slower pace than White Collar employees (currently 9 months). Exceptions to this policy are outlined in Administrative Policy 04-06. Management and Confidential salary schedules for 2001 are attached.

Incumbents in Management positions on January 1, 2001 shall receive an increase not less than 3.1875 percent nor greater than 4.25 percent annually on January 1.

Incumbents in Confidential positions on January 1, 2001 shall receive an increase not less than 3.71875 nor greater than 4.25 percent annually on January 1.

Longevity Payments

Management and Confidential employees shall receive longevity payments as provided for in the CSEA White Collar agreement.

Bereavement

In the event of the death in a County employee’s immediate family, the employee shall be entitled to three of the next five working days off with pay. One additional day may be used if interment takes place at a later time, e.g., weeks or months following the death of a family member. Immediate family includes only: spouse/domestic partner, son, daughter, mother, father, stepparent, stepchild, sister, brother, grandparent, grandchild, or spouse/domestic partner’s mother, father or children. A bereavement form (available from the Personnel Department or the Forms Section of the County’s web page) must be signed and returned to the Personnel Department within two days of returning to work.

In the event of the death of a co-worker from the same department, the department head may approve 2.0 hours of paid leave for the purpose of attending calling hours or the funeral. The department head may deny such leave if the minimum staffing of the department is not met.

NOTE: The maximum daily rate for Bereavement will be the hourly salary for the position times the number of hours per day in the standard 5 day work week of the employee.
 
 

Retirement

The New Career Plan (Section 75i) of the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System will remain in effect for Tier 1 and 2 members. For all employees becoming members of the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System on or after July 27, 1976, provisions of Tier 3 and Tier 4 legislation will apply.

Death benefits will be paid in accordance with the provisions of the New York State Retirement and Social Security Law.

Upon retirement, a Management or Confidential employee may convert vacation, personal and accrued CTO/DTO to pay for health insurance premiums after retirement for as long as the value of the accrued benefit time will cover the retiree cost. The employee may also elect to be paid the value of accrued vacation, personal and CTO/DTO as terminal pay at the time of retirement. Sick time may be used to pay for health insurance premiums for up to a maximum of two (2) years at the prevailing retiree rate for health insurance. Sick time may also be converted to additional service credit under the NYS Retirement System, Section 41j. Any available balance of sick time may be apportioned at the employee’s request between 41j credit and health insurance premiums (up to the two-year limit to pay for health insurance premiums).
 
 

Health Insurance

a) Employees may be covered by the BlueCross BlueShield/Eckerd Health Services plan, or Univera Health Care (HMO). When new employees are hired, they will be given a copy of the available plans by the Personnel Department.

b) All employees who participate in a Health Care Plan provided by Tompkins County automatically pay their share of the premium with before-tax dollars. If the employee prefers to pay on an after-tax basis, the employee must complete a form to elect that option during open enrollment (November of each year).
 
 
 
 

  1. The County will pay 80% of the health insurance premium for single and family coverage. The employee is responsible to pay 20%. This provision applies to employees hired to work 50% time or more. A Voluntary Employee Benefit Account (VEBA) will be established for eligible employees (see CSEA White Collar agreement for details).
d) Employees must sign up for Medicare as soon as eligible.

e) The County shall pay for those employees who elect to participate in a duly provided prepaid health plan, health maintenance organization or independent physician’s association, a percentage of premium equal to what it would have paid under #c above.
 
 

Employee Assistance Program

An Employee Assistance Program is available to employees and members of their immediate family for any reason. The EAP provides up to eight in-person assessment/counseling sessions annually and is completely confidential. EAP services can be accessed by calling Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca at 273-7494.

Flexible Benefit Plan

The County’s Flexible Benefit Plan is authorized under Section 125 of the IRS Code. In addition to the payment of health insurance premiums with pre-taxed dollars (see Health Insurance #b), the flexible benefit plan allows employees to convert part of their compensation into tax-free benefits for the payment of unreimbursed medical expenses or dependent care expenses. These monies are deducted from gross wages before taxes are calculated – thus the savings. A maximum of $3,000 per year can be converted under the medical reimbursement plan; a maximum of $5,000 can be converted under the dependent care plan. A careful review of expenses before making an election is necessary because any unused benefits at the end of the year are forfeited. Annual enrollment is required.
 
 
 
 

Deferred Compensation

The County offers a deferred compensation plan administered by Nationwide Retirement Solutions. Contributions are made each pay period and reduce the amount of taxable income. Taxes are also deferred on any investment income earned over the course of one’s employment years. NRS provides a range of variable and fixed investment programs so participants can choose the investment options that best fit their strategy and goals.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Emergency Pool

The Personnel Department maintains an Emergency Pool for employees who are confronted with a family emergency. Employees can donate discretionary time to the Pool. Forms are available from Personnel.

Employees who have exhausted all available fringes may request time from the Emergency Pool provided they have a verified personal illness or are required to care for a family member (parent, spouse, or child). All requests for time from the Emergency Pool must be accompanied by a physician’s documentation.

The Emergency Pool use may not to exceed the equivalent of four week’s regularly scheduled gross pay in a calendar year. All requests from the Emergency Pool will be granted on a first come-first serve basis, contingent on the Pool balance.

Other Policy Information

All Managers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the County’s Administrative Policy Manual -- a compilation of County policies on Administration, Employment Procedures, Employee Benefits, Wages & Salary, Budget, and Purchasing.

County employment is governed by Civil Services Rules. Please feel free to contact staff in the Personnel Department for specific inquiries and employment information.