(A) As used in this section:

(1) "Receiving employee" means an employee of a soil and water conservation district who receives donated sick leave as authorized by this section.

(2) "Donating employee" means an employee of a soil and water conservation district who donates sick leave as authorized by this section.

(3) "Paid leave" has the same meaning as in section 124.391 of the Revised Code.

(4) "Full-time employee" means an employee of a soil and water conservation district whose regular hours of service for the district total forty hours per week or who renders any other standard of service accepted as full-time by the district.

(5) "Full-time limited hours employee" means an employee of a soil and water conservation district whose regular hours of service for the district total twenty-five to thirty-nine hours per week or who renders any other standard of service accepted as full-time limited hours by the district.

(B)

(1) An employee of a soil and water conservation district is eligible to become a receiving employee if the employee is a full-time employee, or a full-time limited hours employee, who has completed the prescribed probationary period, has used up all accrued paid leave, and has been placed on an approved, unpaid, medical-related leave of absence for a period of at least thirty consecutive working days because of the employee's own serious illness or because of a serious illness of a member of the employee's immediate family.

(2) An employee who desires to become a receiving employee shall submit to the board of supervisors of the employing soil and water conservation district, along with a satisfactory physician's certification, a written request for donated sick leave. The board of supervisors shall determine whether the employee is eligible to become a receiving employee and shall approve the request if it determines the employee is eligible.

(C)

(1) A board of supervisors that approves a request for an employee to become a receiving employee shall forward the approved application to a committee that the Ohio association of soil and water conservation district employees shall appoint to act as a clearinghouse for the donation of sick leave under this section. The committee shall post notice for not less than ten days informing all employees of soil and water conservation districts throughout the state that it has received an approved application to become a receiving employee.

(2) A soil and water conservation district employee desiring to become a donating employee shall complete and submit a sick leave donation form to the employee's immediate supervisor within twenty days after the date of the initial posting of the notice described in division (C)(1) of this section. If the board of supervisors of the employing district of an employee desiring to become a donating employee approves the sick leave donation, the board shall forward to the committee, together with a check equal to the total value of the sick leave donation, a copy of the sick leave donation form, and the board shall notify the receiving employee regarding the donation.

(D) If the committee described in division (C)(1) of this section receives a sick leave donation form and a check from a board of supervisors, the committee shall deposit the check into an account that it shall establish to be used to dispense funds to the employing district of a receiving employee. The committee shall notify the board of supervisors of the employing district of a receiving employee of the amount of sick leave donated. The board of supervisors shall bill the committee during each pay period for the receiving employee's gross hourly wages in an amount that does not exceed the amount donated to the receiving employee. The board of supervisors, with the approval of the county auditor, shall provide for the deposit into its appropriate payroll account of any payments it receives for the benefit of a receiving employee.

(E) The donation and receipt of sick leave under this section is subject to all of the following:

(1) All donations of sick leave shall be voluntary.

(2) A donating employee is eligible to donate not less than eight hours and not more than eighty hours of sick leave during the same calendar year.

(3) The value of an hour of sick leave donated is the value of the donating employee's gross hourly wage. The number of hours received by a receiving employee from a donating employee shall be a number that, when multiplied by the receiving employee's gross hourly wage, equals the amount resulting when the donating employee's gross hourly wage is multiplied by the number of hours of sick leave donated.

(4) No paid leave shall accrue to a receiving employee for any compensation received through donated sick leave, and the receipt of donated sick leave does not affect the date on which a receiving employee first qualifies for continuation of health insurance coverage.

(5) If a receiving employee does not use all donated sick leave during the period of the employee's leave of absence, the unused balance shall remain in the account that the committee described in division (C)(1) of this section established under division (D) of this section and shall be used to dispense funds in the future to the employing district of a receiving employee.

Added by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 64, §101.01, eff. 1/1/2016.