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COMMITTEE ON RULES AND JUDICIARY BILL NO. 35-0287 Thirty-Fifth Legislature of the Virgin Islands June 20, 2024 An Act amending title 2 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 3, section 41 relating to the accrual of sick and annual leave for employees of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands and allowing employees who are separating from the service to receive a lump sum payment for accumulated and accrued annual leave PROPOSED BY: Senator Novelle. E. Francis, Jr. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the Virgin Islands: 1 SECTION 1. Title 2 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 3, section 41 is amended in the 2 following instances: 3 (a) Re-designate the introductory language as subsection (a), strike “Effective on and 4 after April 10, 1961, all administrative and clerical” and insert “All full-time”, and strike “shall 5 be” and insert “are”; 6 (b) Strike subsections (1) through (3) in their entirety and add the following new 7 language: 8 “(1) 208 hours of annual leave with pay each calendar year, which are accrued at 9 the rate of eight hours for each 80-hour biweekly pay period. Any unused annual leave 10 in any year accumulates for succeeding years until it totals an amount not to exceed 480 11 hours. Except as provided in subsection (f), no money is paid in lieu of leave. 12 (2) Cumulative sick leave, with pay, at the rate of four hours for each 80-hour 13 biweekly pay period. The President may approve advanced sick leave in an amount not 14 2 exceeding 1,440 hours, or 180 days. Sick leave that is not used accumulates for use in 1 succeeding years. Upon retirement, accumulated sick leave is applied in accordance with 2 3 V.I.C. § 731 or §770j, as applicable. There is no lump sum payment for accumulated 3 sick leave upon separation from employment or upon retirement. 4 (b) All part-time employees of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands are entitled to the 5 following leave benefits: 6 (1) 98.8 hours of annual leave with pay each calendar year, which are accrued at 7 the rate of 3.8 hours for each 38-hour biweekly pay period. Any unused annual leave in 8 any year accumulates for succeeding years until it totals an amount not to exceed 240 9 hours. Except as provided in subsection (f), no money is paid in lieu of annual leave. 10 (2) Cumulative sick leave, with pay, at the rate of 1.9 hours for each 38-hour 11 biweekly pay period. Sick leave which is not used by an employee accumulates for use 12 in succeeding years. There is no lump sum payment for accumulated sick leave upon 13 separation from employment or upon retirement. 14 (3) For purposes of this section, “part-time employee” means an employee who 15 works 38 or less hours biweekly. 16 (c) Any full-time employee who works less than 80 hours in a pay period and any part- 17 time employee who works less than 38 hours in a pay period, will accrue prorated sick and 18 annual leave. 19 (d) Every effort must be made to allow annual leave when requested, but department 20 heads have the discretion when granting annual leave. 21 (e) A full-time employee who has accrued annual leave at the end of the calendar year 22 that is in excess of 480 hours, is entitled to a service credit towards the employee’s service 23 retirement annuity. 24 (f) (1) Any full-time employee who is separated from the service of the Legislature is 25 entitled to be paid a lump sum for all accumulated annual leave not to exceed 480 hours and 26 3 all current accrued annual leave as defined in paragraph (3). Any part-time employee who is 1 separated from the service of the Legislature is entitled to be paid a lump sum for all 2 accumulated annual leave not to exceed 240 hours and all current accrued annual leave as 3 defined in paragraph (3). The lump-sum payment must equal the compensation that the 4 employee would have received had the employee remained in the service of the Legislature. 5 (2) Except for purposes of taxation, the lump-sum payment authorized in 6 paragraph (1) is not salary or compensation and is not subject to retirement deductions. 7 (3) For purposes of this subsection, as it pertains to full-time employees, “current 8 accrued annual leave” means annual leave accrued during a calendar year through 9 January 31st of the succeeding calendar year that is in excess of 480 hours. As it pertains 10 to part-time employees, “current accrued annual leave” means annual leave accrued 11 during a calendar year through January 31st of the succeeding calendar year that is in 12 excess of 240 hours.” 13 BILL SUMMARY 14 The bill amends title 2 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 3, section 41 by making technical 15 amendments and by allowing all full-time employees of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands 16 to accrue annual and sick leave. Current law allows only administrative and clerical employees 17 to accrue sick and annual leave. The bill also reduces, in conformance with the status quo, the 18 accrual of sick leave hours for full-time employees, from 10 hours per month to 4 hours for 19 each full biweekly pay period, and provides for the accrual of leave benefits for part-time 20 employees which is defined as an employee who works 38 biweekly hours, with annual leave 21 to accrue at the rate of 3.8 hours and sick leave to accrue at the rate of 1.9 hours for each 22 biweekly pay period. Finally, the bill allows an employee who is separated from the service 23 of the legislature, to receive a lump sum payment for accumulated annual leave not exceeding 24 480 hours in addition to all current accrued annual leave. As it pertains to full-time employees, 25 “current accrued annual leave” means unused annual leave that is accrued during a calendar 26 4 year through January 31st of the succeeding calendar year that is in excess of 480 hours, and as 1 it pertains to part-time employees, “current accrued annual leave” means unused annual leave 2 that is accrued during a calendar year through January 31st of the succeeding calendar year that 3 is in excess of 240 hours. There are no provisions under the current law for legislature 4 employees who are separating from the service, to receive a lump sum payout for accumulated 5 leave or accrued leave. The law that provided for this type of payout was rewritten in 1999 by 6 Act No. 6333 which deleted 2 V.I.C. § 41(3) in its entirety and inserted the existing subsection 7 (3) without any mention of the previous language providing for the lump sum payment. The 8 existing subsection (3) only provides for service credits, for retirement purposes, for annual 9 leave exceeding 60 days. The language added to section 41 is similar to the language in 3 10 V.I.C. § 587 which allows for lump sum annual leave payouts for employees who are 11 separating from the executive branch. Specifically, section 587 allows executive branch 12 employees to receive a lump sum payment for all unused annual leave in an amount not to 13 exceed 60 days, in addition to unused annual leave accrued through December 31st that is in 14 excess of 60 days. This bill extends the December 31st cutoff date for accrued leave for lump 15 sum payout purposes, to January 31st of the succeeding calendar year to encourage employees 16 who are planning to separate from the service of the legislature, to remain employed through 17 January 31st of the succeeding calendar year to assist with the transition process between 18 legislative terms. 19 BR24-1048/June 13, 2024/GC 20