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Service employees unhappy with paid time-off policy

Comparison: Universities in Indiana

Indiana University: 14 vacation days, 12 sick days during service employee's first year. After working for six years, service employees get 19 vacation days. 

Purdue University: 10 vacation days during service employee's first year, and an additional day every year after, up to 20 days. Full-time employees get 10 days of sick leave, which can be carried over to the next year. That's a total of 20 paid days in the first year, and 30 in the 10th year. 

Ball State electrician Les Richardson has had part of the cartilage removed from his knee and needs to have it completely replaced. Because of this, it makes his day a little harder when he has to constantly work through the pain.

However, Richardson, who is also the chief steward of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, can’t afford to take the time off or the out-of-pocket costs to get the surgery.

For Richardson and the more than 550 service and skilled crafts employees at Ball State — the people who serve food, fix students’ rooms and clean the bathrooms and residence halls — taking sick leave and vacation time isn’t an option.

Instead, they get something called Paid Time Off (PTO), which combines their vacation time and sick leave.

This arrangement, forged as part of an agreement with the university in 2005, leaves service employees such as Richardson with what they see as few good options to care for themselves when illness or injury strikes.

“[The service employees are] the ones who have to make a conscious choice to come to work sick because they don’t have the time to take time off and take care of themselves when they’re ill,” said Brian Scott, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Now, under the administration of President Paul W. Ferguson, Richardson and others are hoping for a change. The union is up for renegotiation of their contract this summer.

“With a new president, we feel really positive that … maybe we can get something changed,” Lori Haggard, a housing employee, said.

Melissa Rubrecht, director of employee relations and affirmative action, said, as of 2005, service employees are able to use up to 40 hours, or five days, of PTO without scheduling it in advance and without medical verification of their illness. The longer they work at the university, the more time they are able to take off.

In the first and second years, they get 96 hours, or 12 days, total, and in the third through sixth years, they get 144 hours, or 18 days, total, Rubrecht said. 

They can also use 32 hours from an income protection bank each of the service employees have, which allows them to transfer up to 40 hours of their unused PTO into the bank each year, Rubrecht said. They can use those hours as long as they provide a form proving they were seeking medical attention.

“The process works the same whether it is called PTO or a sick day — an employee calls off work with a minor illness and is permitted to use PTO to be paid for the day,” Rubrecht said.

However, Richardson said for shorter-term illnesses, such as a bad cold or the flu, they have to rely on the 40 hours of unscheduled PTO.

“The university takes care of us for major illnesses, but with just the common cold or flu, they leave us hanging,” he said. “They said you can take vacation time, but … vacation time is for our personal use. It’s our time we’ve earned.”

Ball State offers service employees a short-term disability plan that kicks in on the eighth calendar day absent and pays workers 80 percent of their salary, and a long-term disability plan that starts after six months (after short-term disability runs out) that pays 60 percent of their wages, Rubrecht said. 

Other Indiana universities, such as Indiana University and Purdue University, offer more days off than Ball State does.

IU gives 14 vacation days and 12 sick days during an employee's first year there, a total of 26 paid days off, according to indiana.edu. After working there for six years, service employees get 19 vacation days, for a total of 31 days off.

Purdue University offers service employees 10 vacation days during the first year working there, and an additional day every year after, up until 20 days, according to purdue.edu. Full-time employees get 10 days of sick leave, which can be carried over to the next year. That’s a total of 20 paid days off the first year, and 30 days the 10th year.

Richardson said Ball State's plan still isn't enough.

“You work here 10 years and you think you would get a vacation to go on with your children or something,” Richardson said. “They want us to use our vacation time to handle parent teacher conferences, appointments and emergencies. The way it works out, we don’t get a vacation. A three-day weekend is all we’re looking at.”

Other university employees earn paid sick leave that can accumulate up to 90 days and have a long-term disability plan that doesn’t begin until they are off for 60 calendar days, Rubrecht said.

Richardson said the union renegotiates its contract with the university every two years. In 2005, the university took away paid sick leave and changed the name of vacation time to PTO, according to the 2005 Equal Representation Committee report.

Rubrecht said in an email the university had been discussing the high rate of worker absenteeism with the union for some time before 2005. In 1987, both signed a Memorandum of Understanding saying attendance was a mutual concern, and in the 1990s, they implemented a trial attendance program. In 1999, they negotiated and agreed upon a new attendance policy, which Rubrecht said did not end up adequately addressing the university’s concerns with the misuse of sick leave.

Richardson said the union didn’t agree with the university on the 2005 decision, and per its contract, the decision went to a unilateral proposal. This allows the university and the union to submit a proposal, and the Board of Trustees chooses the one they like most.

“Every time that’s ever happened — surprise, surprise — the Board of Trustees chooses the university’s side,” Richardson said.

Board of Trustees chairman Rick Hall didn’t respond to an email request for an interview, and University spokesperson Joan Todd declined to comment any further.

Richardson said, in 2005, the university had promised that the rest of the campus would follow in having sick leave and vacation time combined, but it never happened.

However, Rubrecht said, while there were many things discussed in the course of the decision, this was never a part of any contractual agreement.

Scott said while it may never have been a part of a contractual agreement, it was stated to them multiple times.

“That doesn’t make it contractual, but it sure doesn’t make it right,” Scott said.

Ashley Merryweather, a cashier at the Atrium, said having one person gone throws the whole day off. Dining is the strictest area when it comes to taking time off, both she and Richardson said.

“We have to work overtime,” Merryweather said. “If people are gone, we are asked every time someone is gone ... to come in early and work extra hours to cover that person because there are no extra people here.”

She said for the past four weeks when one of the cashiers was out on maternity leave, each of the cashiers was approached to cover her shifts instead of them hiring someone extra.

Because of this, Merryweather said if someone were to have to take off a week, it would “throw a wrench in the works.”

Merryweather has two children, and she said there are sometimes things that can’t be foreseen with them.

“I feel like there should be some sort of understanding that people do have kids and illnesses that they can’t necessarily foresee,” she said.

She said they are able to request time off in advance, and it’s usually not a problem to do so. In fact, she hasn’t ever used up all of her 40 hours.

“If we need a Friday afternoon off for a doctors appointment, as long as we have the PTO to cover that, it’s not an issue,” Merryweather said. “They don’t ask to see verification that we’ve gone to the doctor.”

However, Richardson said he has known employees who have had to come to work sick if they have already used up all of their PTO hours in order to not get written up or fired.

“So my people are forced to hide their illnesses, which isn’t something we encourage, but what choice do they have?” Richardson said. “If they’ve exhausted the 40 hours and there is a chance they could lose their job, they have to hide their illnesses from their supervisors, because if their supervisor finds out, they’ll send you home."

Richardson said if workers get sent home and they’re past their 40 hours, they’ll get disciplined and written up for "lost time."

Rubrecht said when someone has exhausted their unscheduled PTO, they are not permitted to take more unscheduled time off after that.

“The university will tell you they don’t want sick people working here,” Richardson said. “The union will tell you we don’t want sick people working here. But we also have to protect our jobs.”

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