The governing board of a community college district shall grant to any employee, upon request, a leave of absence without loss of compensation for the purpose of enabling the employee to serve as an elected officer of any local community college district public employee organization, or of any statewide or national public employee organization with which the local organization is affiliated.

The leave shall include, but is not limited to, absence for purposes of attendance by the employee at periodic, stated, special, or regular meetings of the body of the organization on which the employee serves as an officer. Compensation during the leave shall include retirement fund contributions required of the community college district as employer. Required retirement contributions shall include the amount necessary to pay any unfunded liability cost for the retirement plan. The employee shall earn full service credit during the leave of absence and shall pay member contributions as prescribed by Section 22901. The maximum amount of the service credit earned shall not exceed 12 years. Any employee who serves as a full-time officer of a public employee organization shall not be eligible for disability benefits under the State Teachers’ Retirement System while on the leave of absence.

Following the community college district’s payment of the employee for the leave of absence, the community college district shall be reimbursed by the employee organization of which the employee is an elected officer for all compensation paid the employee on account of the leave. Reimbursement by the employee organization shall be made within 10 days after its receipt of the community college district’s certification of payment of compensation to the employee.

The leave of absence without loss of compensation provided for by this section is in addition to the released time without loss of compensation granted to representatives of an exclusive representative by subdivision (c) of Section 3543.1 of the Government Code.

(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 123, Sec. 41. (AB 991) Effective January 1, 2016.)