Bulletin 17-02 - Military Leave Clarifications
1.0 - SUBJECT: Military Leave Clarifications
2.0 - EFFECTIVE DATE: October 6, 2017
3.0 - DISTRIBUTION: State of Kansas HR Directors & Managers
4.0 - FROM: Kraig Knowlton, Director of Personnel Services DATE: October 6, 2017
5.0 - PURPOSE: This Bulletin is being issued to update and replace Bulletin 06-01 following the October 6, 2017 amendments to Kansas Administrative Regulation (K.A.R.) 1-9-7b. Bulletin 06-01 is hereby revoked.
6.0 - BACKGROUND: Amendments to K.A.R. 1-9-7b increased the amount of military leave with pay available to employees in each twelve-month period between October 1st and September 30th from 15 to 30 working days and expands the type of duty for which such leave can be used. Additional amendments clarify that this leave is available to benefits-eligible State employees in both classified and unclassified positions as well as procedures regarding the requests for such leave.
7.0 - PROCEDURES:
7.1 Military leave with pay pursuant to K.A.R. 1-9-7b is available to all employees, whether classified or unclassified, regular or temporary, who are eligible to receive benefits.
7.2 The requirement that eligible employees may only use military leave with pay for active duty was eliminated with the October 6, 2017 amendments. Employees may now use military leave with pay for any required military duty, which is defined in the regulation as any period of active duty, inactive duty, or full-time national guard duty, or any other appropriate duty status as determined by the director, that is required of the employee.
7.3 This represents a significant change, in that employees may now use military leave with pay for weekend drill or other military responsibilities which do not require them to be put on active duty, provided such responsibilities fall within the employee’s regular work schedule.
7.4 Although there is no timing element specified in the regulation, the intent of the language in the regulation is to mean that the 30 working days of military leave with pay are available to employees when they are called to required military duty. Employees can only apply their 30 working days of military leave with pay to a single term of required military duty one time. Even if a single term of required military duty exceeds the defined 12-month period, eligible employees cannot apply a new set of 30 working days of military leave with pay to a term of required military duty on which they have already used 30 working days of military leave with pay.
7.5 Even though the amendments to K.A.R. 1-9-7b were not effective until October 6, 2017, since no employee could have possibly exhausted their allotment of 15 working days that refreshed on October 1, 2017, all employees will essentially receive the full 30 working days for the 12-month period that began on October 1, 2017.
7.6 The term “appropriate accrued leave” used in subsection (b) of K.A.R. 1-9-7b refers to an employee’s unused discretionary holiday and any amount of accrued vacation leave, compensatory time or holiday compensatory time. Sick leave would ordinarily not be considered “appropriate accrued leave” for the purposes of that subsection, but could qualify if the underlying reason for the absence met all requirements for the use of sick leave as specified in K.A.R. 1-9-5.
8.0 - REFERENCES: K.A.R.’s 1-9-7b
9.0 - CONTACT PERSON:
Danelle Harsin, Deputy Director
Office of Personnel Services
Danelle.Harsin@ks.gov
(785) 296-4383
