Maximizing Your Leave Balances

Dec 1

As SLOCEA prepares for the upcoming collective bargaining cycle for the County’s Big Unit and Trades, we have been evaluating the benefits in the MOUs from our six bargaining units. In a review of this information, I was looking at vacation and sick leave benefits and the differences between the County, the Superior Court and the Los Osos Community Services District (CSD).

Below is a handy chart that you can review the provisions of vacation and sick leave benefits, by bargaining unit. The information in the chart is based on a full-time permanent employee and calculations on an 8-hour workday.

SLOCEA strongly encourages employees to schedule their vacations to ensure no loss of accrued leave. Vacation time is valuable both as compensation and for a well-deserved rest. If you haven’t planned a winter vacation yet, now’s a great time! Employees are entitled to use vacation time or receive payment for unused time.

Alternatively, employees have options to turn excess sick leave into vacation time for added flexibility. Employees of the County and Superior Court may also consider donating vacation hours to the catastrophic leave program if they are nearing the cap and a coworker is in need of such assistance.

The end of the calendar year is a good time for employees to evaluate vacation and sick leave balances. If an employee hits their accrual caps on vacation or sick leave they will stop accruing that benefit. We encourage all employees to plan ahead to maximize their leave benefits!