In accordance with Minn. Stat. Section 192.261, subd. 1, while on military leave, employees are eligible to continue to accrue vacation and sick leave as if employed. When an employee returns to work from an extended military leave of absence (i.e. deployment, Title 10), their agency will calculate the additional leave the employee accrued and add it to their balances. When the employee returns, they may request to use vacation leave in accordance with the provisions of your labor agreement or compensation plan.
Use of Accruals
Eligible employees (those with available accruals at the time military leave commences) may elect to use accrued vacation time or compensatory time while on active duty.
If an employee on an extended military leave is going to take time off before or after their official dates of active duty, they can choose to use vacation, compensatory time, or a floating holiday to be in active pay status. If they choose not to use their paid leave or do not have paid leave available to them, the employee should be put on an unpaid personal leave for their time away between reporting for scheduled work and their first or last day of active military duty.
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during the fiscal year for “any qualifying exigency” when the employee’s spouse, child, or parent is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty in the Armed Forces (including the Reserves and National Guard) in support of a “contingency operation.” Examples of a “qualifying exigency” may include settling legal matters, interviewing child care providers, handling financial matters, seeking assistance for care of elderly parents, and covering household duties that the service member had been handling.
An eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent or next of kin of a service member who is recovering from a serious illness or injury sustained in the line of duty on active duty is entitled to up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for the service member. “Next of kin” means the nearest blood relative of the service member.
Such leave is part of, not in addition to, any FMLA leave an employee may be using for other reasons.
Additional information on the amendments, including a workplace poster, can found in the State's FMLA Policy.
Effective August 1, 2006, unless the leave would unduly disrupt the operations of the employee's agency, the agency shall grant an employee a leave of absence without pay if an immediate family member, as a member of the United States armed forces, has been ordered into active service in support of a war or other national emergency.
The agency may limit the amount of leave provided to the actual time necessary for an employee to attend a send-off or homecoming ceremony, not to exceed one day's duration in any calendar year. At the agency's discretion, an employee may substitute accrued vacation or compensatory time off for any or all of the leave period. Immediate family member is defined in the law as the employee's grandparent, parent, legal guardian, sibling, child, grandchild, spouse, fiancé, or fiancée.
If an employee's immediate family member, as a member of the United Stated armed forces, has been injured or killed while engaged in active service, the employee will be granted up to 10 working days of unpaid leave. The number of days granted may depend on the specific situation and operation business needs. Immediate family member is defined in this law as a person’s parent, child, grandparents, siblings, or spouse.
At the agency's discretion, an employee may substitute paid accrued vacation or compensatory time off for any or all of the leave period. The employee must give as much notice as practicable of the their intent to take this leave. This provision is effective June 2, 2006, and applies to family members injured or killed after this date as well as those family members injured prior to this date.
Pursuant to Minnesota Statute 43A.184, a state employee who is a veteran with a service related disability may apply to the employee’s appointing authority for additional sick leave to receive treatment for the disability. The employee must qualify as a veteran under Minnesota Statute 197.447 and have a sick leave balance that is insufficient to receive treatment for the disability.
The appointing authority may authorize up to an additional 40 hours of sick leave for the employee in the current fiscal year. The appointing authority may approve sick leave for an employee under these provisions one time in each fiscal year. Should the absence be Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) qualifying, the 40 additional hours will be applied to the FMLA time limits.
