Each campus and institute at the University of Tennessee participates in a sick leave bank. Sick leave banks offer members experiencing an illness or injury the opportunity to request additional paid leave after exhausting all personal accrued annual and sick leave.
Regular full- and part-time employees can join each year during open enrollment from April 1 to June 30.
Requests for withdrawals from banks require medical verification and are reviewed by a chancellor-appointed board. Members granted time from banks receive their normal pay and continue to accrue sick and annual leave.
Bank members who have exhausted all personal accrued leave and whose requests have been approved by their campus or institute’s sick leave bank board are eligible to receive donations of sick leave from employees outside of the bank.
To join, employees must have a minimum balance of 48 hours of sick leave by July 1 and are required to donate 24 of those hours to the bank upon enrollment.
Click on the campus and institute links below for open enrollment applications and human resources contacts.
For specific information about each bank, please visit the appropriate campus or institute Human Resources Office.
Campus Sick Leave Banks
*UT Knoxville bank also includes employees from the UT Institute for Public Service, the Space Institute and the University-wide Administration
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Any regular full- or part-time staff member who has accumulated a minimum of 48 hours of sick leave available on July 1 of the year he/she applies may elect to enroll in a campus or institute sick leave bank (SLB) by contributing a minimum of 24 hours. (The sick leave balance requirement is prorated for part-time employees.) Term employees are not eligible.
Enrollments for each campus and institute SLB are held April 1 through June 30 every calendar year.
As long as an employee has been a member of a SLB for 30 days and has used all accrued leave, he/she may apply for SLB time. Application is made in writing using the sick leave transfer request form. A letter from a doctor certifying the illness is required. If the request is for a pre-existing condition, there will be a six-month waiting period before time will be given. Each initial grant of sick leave days is limited to a maximum of 240 consecutive working hours for each illness/injury. Extensions of SLB days may be granted up to 720 hours in a 12-month period for any one illness, recurring illness or accident.
The SLB can be used for pregnancy-related medical emergencies such as extended bed rest. However, it may not be used for routine pregnancy procedures or maternity leave.
Any unused SLB time is returned to the bank.
Yes. Recipients of donated time must be SLB members and be approved for SLB days. In addition, the recipient must submit medical certification and have exhausted all personal accrued sick and annual leave.
No. If an employee has at least 160 hours of sick leave accrued, he/she may donate a minimum of 80 hours to a co-worker. The maximum any employee can donate during his/her employment at the University is 720 hours.
The maximum any participant may receive during employment is 720 hours. No recipient can be approved who is receiving any other form of compensation, such as social security disability, workers’ compensation or disability retirement.
If the hours in a bank fall below one day per member, an additional assessment of up to 16 hours may be made at the determination of bank trustees. However,
UT Personnel Policy HR0382 ensures that SLB members receive a 30-day written notice before such an additional assessment and that members have the option to withdraw from the SLB if they do not wish to honor the additional assessment. This situation does not happen often.
Each campus and institute SLB is administered by a six-member board of trustees appointed by the chancellor. Trustees are responsible for the administration of each bank, including the review of requests for withdrawal of sick leave hours. All leave granted will be at the discretion of SLB trustees. If an employee’s initial request is denied, the employee may reapply for a SLB withdrawal by providing additional information. The trustees’ decision is final.
Each board meets only when there is a request to review.
