1. (a) Purpose. The purpose of this rule is to establish a sick leave pool for Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) employees as mandated by Texas Government Code, §661.002.

2. (b) General Provisions.

   1. (1) The director of human resources or designee is the pool administrator.
   2. (2) All contributions to the TJJD sick leave pool are voluntary.
   3. (3) The donating employee may not designate a specific employee to receive the donated hours.

   4. (4) An employee is eligible to use time contributed to the sick leave pool if the employee has exhausted his/her sick leave because of:

      1. (A) a catastrophic illness or injury; or
      2. (B) a previous donation of time to the pool.
   5. (5) An employee may withdraw time from the sick leave pool that the employee did not contribute only if the employee or an immediate family member suffers a catastrophic illness or injury.

   6. (6) The following provisions apply to employees who withdraw sick leave pool time that is beyond what they contributed.

      1. (A) The pool administrator determines the number of hours that an employee may withdraw from the pool; however, the amount withdrawn may never exceed the lesser of:

         1. (i) one-third of the total time in the pool; or
         2. (ii) 90 days.
      2. (B) An employee absent on time withdrawn from the sick leave pool may use the time as sick leave earned by the employee, and the employee is treated for all purposes as if the employee were absent on earned sick leave.
      3. (C) The estate of a deceased employee is not entitled to payment for unused time withdrawn by the employee from the sick leave pool.

Source Note:The provisions of this §385.9981 adopted to be effective April 1, 2015, 40 TexReg 1860.