(a) This Personal Leave program is being established to achieve savings in excluded and related exempt employee salary costs. Effective July 1, 1992, it shall apply to:

(b) Each full-time employee subject to this program shall be credited with eight (8) hours of personal leave on the first day of the following monthly pay period for each month in the Personal Leave program. The Personal Leave program shall not affect an employee's salary range or rate; however, each full-time employee shall continue to work his/her assigned work schedule and the employee shall have a reduction in pay equal to one day of pay (8 hours) for each monthly pay period the employee is in the Personal Leave program.

(c) Personal leave shall be requested and used by the employee in the same manner as vacation or annual leave. Requests to use personal leave must be submitted in accordance with agency policies on vacation or annual leave.

(d) At the discretion of the state, all or a portion of unused personal leave credits may be cashed out at the employee's salary rate in effect when such payment is made; this may occur during or after the conclusion of this Personal Leave program. The application of this cash out provision may differ from agency to agency and from employee to employee. Upon termination from state employment, the employee shall be paid for unused personal leave credits in the same manner as vacation or annual leave. Cash out or lump sum payment for any personal leave credits shall not be considered as “compensation” for purposes of retirement.

(e) An employee may not use any kind of paid leave such as sick leave, vacation, or holiday time to avoid a reduction in pay resulting from the Personal Leave program.

(f) An employee in the Personal Leave program shall be entitled to the same level of State employer contributions for health, vision, dental, flex-elect cash option, and enhanced survivors benefits he or she would have received had the Personal Leave program not occurred.

(g) The Personal Leave program shall not cause a break in state service, or a reduction in the employee's accumulation of service credit for the purposes of seniority and retirement, leave accumulation, and merit salary adjustments.

(h) Reductions in pay resulting from the Personal Leave program shall neither affect the employee's final compensation used in calculating state retirement benefits nor reduce the level of state death or disability benefits the employee would otherwise receive or be entitled to receive nor shall it affect the employee's ability to supplement those benefits with paid leave.

(i) Part-time employees shall be subject to the same conditions as stated above, on a prorated basis regardless of the number of hours in the pay period consistent with the chart below:

(j) The reduction in pay for permanent intermittent employees shall be prorated based upon the number of hours worked in the monthly pay period as stated in the chart below.

(k) The Personal Leave program shall be administered consistent with the existing payroll system and the policies and practices of the State Controller's office.

(l) Employees on Enhanced Industrial Disability Leave, Non-industrial Disability Insurance, Industrial Disability Leave, or Worker's Compensation Temporary Disability for the entire monthly pay period shall be excluded from the Personal Leave program for that month.

(m) Except as provided in (n), employees shall remain in the Personal Leave program until December 31, 1993 or until they have completed 18 months of salary reduction, whichever is sooner. Time during which the employee received a lower salary because of the 1991-92 salary range reduction for managerial and supervisory classifications, as well as time spent in any state Personal Leave program, shall count toward the 18 months of salary reduction. Personal leave credit for 1991-92 salary reduction time shall be granted to the employee on a month-for-month basis on the date the Personal Leave program becomes applicable to the employee. Employees whose 1991-92 salary rate reduction was less than the 1991-92 salary range reduction shall receive salary reduction and personal leave credit on a prorated basis for any such period.

(n) Regardless of the time limits specified in (m), employees who are designated managerial, except those on the staff of the schools under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Education or the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall remain in the Personal Leave program while they are covered by the criteria specified in subsection (a)(2).