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Sick leave donation program benefits county workers

Donation policy doesn’t cost the county anything.

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By Bridgette Outten, Staff Writer 6:27 PM Monday, May 18, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — Mary Bowshier was very sick last year.

Bowshier, 55, was so ill that she missed a combined six months of work, sucking up all her vacation, sick and comp time acquired over her 13 years as an employee of Job and Family Services of Clark County.

“I would have been totally devastated if I lost my income and was sick, too,” Bowshier said.

That didn’t happen. Bowshier was able to take advantage of JFS Catastrophic Leave Policy.

The policy, which has been in place since 2001, allows employees to donate hours in a sick leave bank that employees in need can draw from, explained Kerry Pedraza, JFS Director of Human Resources.

The program doesn’t create any additional cost for the county.

If an employee suffers a serious illness or injury and satisfies other requirements outlined in the policy, they will be approved to use hours from the sick leave bank.

Last year alone, four JFS employees used 544 hours from the bank.

“Without the generosity of others, I would have had to come back to work,” Bowshier said.

Clark County Juvenile Court staff used the JFS policy to craft a similar program. County commissioners approved juvenile court’s Donation of Paid Leave Program last week.

The only difference is that while JFS’ sick leave bank is “blind,” and employees aren’t allowed to donate to an individual, juvenile court employees can donate to someone of their choosing, Magistrate Tom Wilson said.

Wilson said staff mulled over implementation of the court’s program — with an employee who died several years ago from cancer in mind — before presenting it to the commission.

There was no donation program in place and the woman wasn’t able to come back to work. She was without income for months until her disability claim was processed, Wilson said.

“She was such a neat lady that she’d be happy to know that we’ll be able to help others in a way that we couldn’t help her,” Wilson said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.

Mary  Bowshier

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