A. Paid time off (PTO) benefits are hours credited per pay period to employees based on years of service, to be used to continue pay when the employee is absent from work for vacation, sickness, immediate family illness or emergency, and/or doctor and dental appointments.

B. Except as otherwise provided in the Bethel Municipal Code and state and federal law, or a specific employment contract with an individual employee, regular full-time or regular part-time employees shall accrue, from the date of hire as probationary employees, PTO benefits according to the following schedule. Part-time employees shall receive pro rata PTO benefits; temporary employees do not earn PTO benefits.

C. Except for illness or an emergency, a PTO request must be submitted in advance in writing and approved by the employee’s department head. PTO will, so far as possible and consistent with the operational needs of the city, be granted at the times requested by the employee. An employee’s department head may change or cancel previously approved PTO whenever necessary to meet the operating needs of the department. The city shall reimburse the employee for nonrefundable plane tickets purchased for PTO that has been canceled at the city’s direction.

D. The city may require reasonable proof (such as a doctor’s certificate) of illness or disability if more than two (2) days of PTO are used, or when fraud is suspected. Fraudulent use or abuse of PTO shall be grounds for discipline consistent with this title, up to and including termination of employment.

E. Accrued and unused PTO leave may be carried over from one fiscal year to the next for the purpose of accumulating an annual PTO leave account or reserve. An employee’s maximum accrual is four hundred (400) PTO hours. When four hundred (400) hours are reached, additional PTO leave will not accrue until the employee brings the total below four hundred (400) hours. Each employee is required to take a minimum eighty (80) hours of PTO within each fiscal year. If the employee has taken fewer than eighty (80) hours of PTO at the end of the fiscal year, sufficient hours shall be deducted without compensation to total the 80 hours of mandatory leave. Each employee is responsible for managing their PTO in accordance with this section.

F. At the end of an employee’s probationary period, an employee may request cash out of PTO no more than two (2) times per fiscal year and up to one hundred (100) PTO hours; provided, that the employee retains a minimum of eighty (80) PTO hours.

G. At the end of an employee’s probationary period, an employee upon separation from city employment shall be paid one hundred (100) percent of the value for all unused PTO accrued (up to the maximum as provided in this section). An employee who is separated from city employment during the probationary period will not be paid for accrued PTO.

H. A leave donation request shall be submitted to the city manager in advance and approved by the city manager. Leave donations shall be processed for the pay period following use of the leave. To receive donated leave, the employee recipient:

Unused leave donations shall be returned to the employee donor. All transferred hours will be computed as a cash value transfer in such a manner as to be revenue-neutral to the city. [Ord. 22-33 § 2, 2022.]