Florida Senate - 2022                                    SB 1388
       
       
        
       By Senator Rodriguez
       
       
       
       
       
       39-01646-22                                           20221388__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to parental leave; amending s.
    3         110.121, F.S.; requiring, rather than authorizing,
    4         certain departments or agencies of the state to adopt
    5         rules to establish a plan for a sick leave pool;
    6         providing that eligible employees may use a sick leave
    7         pool for parental leave; providing for priority of
    8         application in case of conflict; defining the term
    9         “parental leave”; providing requirements for parental
   10         leave; providing the amount of parental leave
   11         authorized; providing requirements for use of leave
   12         after exhaustion of maximum parental leave hours;
   13         providing that parental leave runs concurrently with
   14         the Family Medical Leave Act; making technical and
   15         conforming changes; providing an effective date.
   16          
   17  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   18  
   19         Section 1. Section 110.121, Florida Statutes, is amended to
   20  read:
   21         110.121 Sick leave pool.—
   22         (1) Each department or agency of the state which has
   23  authority to adopt rules governing the accumulation and use of
   24  sick leave for employees and which maintains accurate and
   25  reliable records showing the amount of sick leave that which has
   26  been accumulated and is unused by employees shall may, in
   27  accordance with guidelines which shall be established by the
   28  Department of Management Services, adopt rules for the
   29  establishment of a plan allowing participating employees to pool
   30  sick leave and allowing any sick leave thus pooled to be used as
   31  authorized in this section by a any participating employee who
   32  has used all of the sick leave that has been personally accrued
   33  by him or her. Although not limited to the following, such rules
   34  must specify the maximum number of days of sick leave in the
   35  pool which any one employee may use and shall provide that:
   36         (a)(1)That Employees are shall be eligible for
   37  participation in the sick leave pool after 1 year of employment
   38  with the state or agency of the state,; provided that such
   39  employee has accrued the required a minimum amount of unused
   40  sick leave, as which minimum shall be established by department
   41  rule.
   42         (b)(2)That Participation in the sick leave pool must
   43  shall, at all times, be voluntary on the part of the employees.
   44         (c)(3)That Any sick leave pooled must shall be removed
   45  from the personally accumulated sick leave balance of the
   46  employee contributing such leave.
   47         (d)(4)That Any sick leave in the pool which leave is used
   48  by a participating employee may shall be used only for the
   49  employee’s personal illness, accident, or injury or for parental
   50  leave.
   51         (e)(5)Except as provided in subsection (2), That a
   52  participating employee may shall not be eligible to use sick
   53  leave accumulated in the pool until all of his or her personally
   54  accrued sick, annual, and compensatory leave has been used.
   55         (6)A maximum number of days of sick leave in the pool
   56  which any one employee may use.
   57         (f)(7)That A participating employee who uses sick leave
   58  from the pool is shall not be required to recontribute such sick
   59  leave to the pool, except as otherwise provided in this section.
   60         (g)(8)That An employee who cancels his or her membership
   61  in the sick leave pool may shall not be eligible to withdraw the
   62  days of sick leave contributed by that employee to the pool.
   63         (h)(9)That An employee who transfers from one position in
   64  state government to another position in state government may
   65  transfer from one pool to another if the eligibility criteria of
   66  the pools are comparable or the administrators of the pools have
   67  agreed on a formula for transfer of credits.
   68         (i)(10)That Alleged abuse of the use of the sick leave
   69  pool must shall be investigated, and, on a finding of
   70  wrongdoing, the employee must shall repay all of the sick leave
   71  credits drawn from the sick leave pool and is shall be subject
   72  to such other disciplinary action as is determined by the agency
   73  head.
   74         (j)(11)That Sick leave credits may be drawn from the sick
   75  leave pool by a part-time employee on a pro rata basis.
   76         (2)The sick leave pool may be used by eligible employees
   77  for parental leave. In the event that any other provision of law
   78  or the model rule established by the Department of Management
   79  Services under s. 110.1522 conflicts with this section, this
   80  section must prevail, but only to the extent of the conflict.
   81         (a)As used in this section, the term “parental leave”
   82  means leave for the father or mother of a child born to or
   83  adopted by that parent.
   84         (b)An employee may use the sick leave pool for parental
   85  leave without having exhausted his or her personally accrued
   86  sick, annual, or compensatory leave.
   87         (c)An employee using the sick leave pool for parental
   88  leave does not accrue his or her personal sick, annual, or
   89  compensatory leave while on parental leave, except as provided
   90  in s. 110.221(3).
   91         (d)An employee may take up to 4 consecutive weeks of
   92  parental leave with full pay.
   93         (e)An employee is eligible for parental leave only within
   94  the first 12 weeks after the birth or adoption of a child.
   95         (f)After the expiration of the 4 weeks of parental leave
   96  authorized under paragraph (d), any additional parental leave
   97  that an employee takes is treated as any other sick, annual, or
   98  compensatory leave.
   99         (g)Parental leave taken under this section runs
  100  concurrently with the Family Medical Leave Act.
  101         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.