A. The Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services shall promulgate such emergency and permanent rules regarding leave and holiday leave as are necessary to assist the state and its agencies. The Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, in adopting new rules, amending rules and repealing rules, shall ensure that the following provisions are incorporated: 1. Eligible employees who enter on duty or who are reinstated after a break in service shall receive leave benefits in accordance with the schedule outlined below. Leave shall be accrued based upon hours worked, paid leave, and holidays, but excluding overtime, not to exceed the total possible work hours for the pay period. Years of service shall be based on cumulative periods of employment calculated in the manner that cumulative service is determined for longevity purposes pursuant to Section 840-2.18 of this title. Employees may accumulate more than the maximum annual leave accumulation limits shown in the schedule below provided that such excess is used during the same calendar year in which it accrues or within twelve (12) months of the date on which it accrues, at the discretion of the appointing authority. If an employee whose job duties include providing fire protection services, law enforcement services or services with the Department of Corrections is unable to use excess leave as provided for in this paragraph because the employee’s request for leave is denied by the employee’s appointing authority and the denial of leave is due to extraordinary circumstances such that taking leave could pose a threat to public safety, health or welfare, the employee shall receive compensation at the employee’s regular rate of pay for the amount of excess leave the employee is unable to use. Such compensation shall be paid at the end of the time period during which the excess leave was required to have been used; 2. On and after the effective date of this act, the following accrual rates and accumulation limits apply to eligible employees as follows: ACCRUAL RATES ACCUMULATION LIMITS Cumulative Years of Annual Sick Annual Service Leave Leave Leave Persons employed 0-5 yrs = 15 day/yr 15 days/yr 30 days 5-10 yrs = 18 day/yr 15 days/yr 80 days 10-20 yrs = 20 day/yr 15 days/yr 80 days over 20 yrs = 25 day/yr 15 days/yr 80 days Following an emergency declaration as described in Section 683.8 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes, the accumulation limits for annual leave shall temporarily increase and shall carryover to the end of the fiscal year following the year in which the emergency declaration ended. All annual leave that accrued or expired during the period of the emergency declarations issued by the Governor in 2020 and 2021 in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) shall carry over to the end of the fiscal year following the year in which the emergency declaration ended regardless of regulatory provisions that establish a maximum amount of annual leave that may be accumulated by an employee of this state. Expired annual leave governed by this subsection shall be reinstated as of May 7, 2021, and accumulation limits for annual leave shall not apply to amounts accrued or reinstated pursuant to this subsection. Eligibility for reinstatement of annual leave is limited to employees currently employed by this state on May 7, 2021; 3. Temporary employees and other limited term employees are ineligible to accrue, use, or be paid for sick leave and annual leave. Such employees shall be eligible for paid holiday leave at the discretion of the appointing authority; 4. Except as provided in paragraph 2 of this subsection, employees shall not be entitled to retroactive accumulation of leave as a result of amendments to this section; 5. The Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services shall assist agencies in developing policies to prevent violence in state government workplaces without abridging the rights of state employees. Such policies shall include a paid administrative leave provision as a cooling-off period which the Director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services is authorized to provide pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act. Such leave shall not be charged to annual or sick leave accumulations; 6. State employees who terminated their employment in the state service on or after October 1, 1992, may be eligible to have sick leave accrued at the time of termination of employment restored if they return to state employment provided that the state employees’ enter-on-duty dates for reemployment occur on or before two (2) years after their termination of employment and they are eligible to accrue sick leave before the two (2) years expire; 7. Employees who are volunteer firefighters pursuant to the Oklahoma Volunteer Firefighters Act and who are called to fight a fire shall not have to use any accrued leave or need to make up any time due to the performance of their volunteer firefighter duties; 8. Employees who are reserve municipal police officers pursuant to Section 34-101 of Title 11 of the Oklahoma Statutes and who miss work in performing their duties in cases of emergency shall not have to use any accrued leave or need to make up any time due to the performance of their reserve municipal police officer duties; 9. Employees who are reserve deputy sheriffs pursuant to Section 547 of Title 19 of the Oklahoma Statutes and who miss work in performing their duties in case of emergency shall not have to use any accrued leave or need to make up any time due to the performance of their reserve deputy sheriff duties; 10. For purposes of the computation required by this section, any service performed by a person during which the person received compensation for duties performed for the state shall be counted if payment for such service was made using state fiscal resources. The provisions of this section shall not apply to elected or appointed justices or judges, including special judges, who perform service in the trial or appellate courts. The provisions of this section shall apply to persons who perform services as an administrative law judge within the executive department and employees of the judicial branch; and 11. Eligible employees shall be entitled to paid maternity leave as provided for in Section 840-2.20D of this title. B. Nothing in law is intended to prevent or discourage an appointing authority from disciplining or terminating an employee due to abuse of leave benefits or absenteeism. Appointing authorities are encouraged to consider attendance of employees in making decisions regarding promotions, pay increases, and discipline. C. Upon the transfer of a function in state government to an entity outside state government, employees may, with the agreement of the outside entity, waive any payment for leave accumulations to which the employee is entitled and authorize the transfer of the leave accumulations or a portion thereof to the outside entity. D. All permanent employees of the state shall be eligible to carry over a maximum of six hundred forty (640) hours of annual leave each year. Additionally, all employees shall be paid up to a maximum of six hundred forty (640) hours of annual leave upon separation from state service. Added by Laws 1985, c. 203, § 113, operative July 1, 1985. Amended by Laws 1988, c. 85, § 1, eff. July 1, 1988; Laws 1992, c. 367, § 3, eff. July 1, 1992. Renumbered from § 840.7a of this title by Laws 1994, c. 242, § 54. Amended by Laws 1994, c. 283, § 11, eff. Sept. 1, 1994; Laws 1995, c. 358, § 11, emerg. eff. June 9, 1995; Laws 1996, c. 320, § 4, emerg. eff. June 12, 1996; Laws 1998, c. 235, § 2, eff. July 1, 1998; Laws 1998, c. 399, § 1; Laws 1999, c. 21, § 1, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 2001, c. 348, § 3, eff. Nov. 1, 2001; Laws 2003, c. 145, § 1, eff. July 1, 2003; Laws 2004, c. 312, § 7, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2004, c. 401, § 1, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2005, c. 437, § 1, eff. July 1, 2005; Laws 2006, c. 230, § 2, eff. July 1, 2006; Laws 2009, c. 423, § 1, eff. July 1, 2009; Laws 2011, c. 37, § 1; Laws 2012, c. 304, § 879; Laws 2021, c. 173, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2021; Laws 2021, c. 438, § 3, emerg. eff. May 7, 2021; Laws 2022, c. 243, § 16, emerg. eff. May 11, 2022; Laws 2023, 1st Ex. Sess., c. 18, § 2, eff. July 1, 2023; Laws 2024, c. 452, § 172, emerg. eff. June 14, 2024.
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