A. An employee must first exhaust all available and accrued vacation, sick leave, personal holiday hours, compensatory time, and Catastrophic Humanitarian Leave, before Shared Sick Leave will be granted.

B. An employee using Shared Sick Leave will not accrue any additional leaves such as sick leave and vacation leave or step increase counters by virtue of Shared Sick Leave, but may continue to be eligible for health care coverage and other benefits as if the employee were in a regular paid status.

C. Any use of Shared Sick Leave will be counted toward the 12 week allowance for Family and Medical Leave (Federal FMLA), if applicable.

D. Shared Sick Leave is not a vested benefit and Pierce County may repeal this leave bank at any time and any leave balances shall revert to Pierce County upon revocation.

E. No benefit will be paid for unused hours of Shared Sick Leave upon separation from employment for any reason.

F. Employees eligible for shared sick leave shall have a lifetime limit of 60 days, up to 480 hours. Once an employee's available Shared Sick Leave hours are exhausted, or if insufficient donated hours are available in the bank, the employee will only be eligible to apply for an unpaid leave of absence.

G. If an unpaid leave is not granted and there is not a reasonable expectation that the employee will be able to resume employment, the employee will be terminated.