(a) Defined. Employees occupying permanent positions shall accrue sick leave at the rate of one-half day (4 hours) for each biweekly pay period in which they are in pay status for the entire ten (10) days; otherwise, there shall be no accrual for such period. For the purposes of this Section, all full-time employees of the Department of Education, University of Guam and the Guam Community College shall be deemed to be employed on the same two thousand eighty (2,080) hour year divided into twenty-six (26) biweekly pay periods as other permanent positions within the Government, even though such employees may be paid in accordance with a different payroll system. Therefore, they shall accrue thirteen (13) days sick leave per duty year.

(b) Accumulation. Unused sick leave may be accumulated and carried over to succeeding leave years without limitation.
(c) When Allowed. Sick leave with pay is allowed whenever: (1) The employee is compelled to be absent from duty
on account of physical or mental illness; injury; mental health
examination, counseling or treatment; pregnancy; childbirth; medical, dental or optical examination or treatment; or because of quarantine due to his own or another’s illness.

(2) The employee is compelled to be absent from duty to provide health care for a member of the employee’s immediate family as a result of serious illness or injury.

(A) Serious illness or injury means an urgent condition that is certified by the attending physician as requiring hospitalization, institutionalization, or
extended home care in which the person needs the constant administration of special medical care or support.

(B) Immediate family member means the em- ployee’s spouse, common law, parents, parents-in-law, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren, any step or adoptive parents, adopted children or grandchildren of both the employee and the spouse, a guardian or person in loco parentis.

(d) Certification. If an employee is absent because of illness, injury, medical condition or quarantine in excess of three (3) consecutive days, he may be required to furnish a certification as to the incapacity from a regularly licensed physician or other evidence administratively acceptable. The department head may require certification for such other period as is appropriate.

(e) Administration. If the certification required by Subsection (d) is not furnished, all absence which would have been covered by such certification shall be indicated on the payroll as leave of absence without pay.

(f) Special Provisions. The generality of Subsections (a)
through (f) is subject to the following special provisions:

(1) Additional sick leave with pay may be allowed an employee on the recommendation of the Director of Administration, or the appropriate branch, department, agency or authority head and approval of the department, agency or authority board or commission, where such exists, or the Governor for employees of the Executive Branch, the Rules Committee of the Legislature for employees within the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Council for employees of the Judiciary;

(2) Falsification of an illness or medical condition report shall be considered sufficient cause for disciplinary action, including dismissal from the government service for repeated offenses;

(3) Sick leave with pay shall be allowed during leaves of absence or vacation, provided, however, that any sick
leave taken while on vacation must be supported by a certificate issued by a licensed physician. No employee shall be allowed to undertake gainful employment while on sick leave status;

(4) The minimum charge for sick leave shall be one hour and additional charges in multiples thereof;

(5) Sick leave with pay, up to a maximum of thirteen (13) days, may be granted in advance of earning such leave under the conditions described in Subsections (a), (b), (d), (f)(3) and (f)(4) of this Section. If an employee is separated from the service without having earned all of the sick leave allowed and taken, there shall be deducted from any money due him at the time of separation an amount equal to his salary for the period of unearned sick leave allowed and taken;

(6) Responsibility for administration of this Section shall remain with the appointing authorities, subject to such audit as may be ordered by the Director of Administration.

(g) Vesting. Sick leave accrued for service with the government of Guam or any of its instrumentalities, branches, authorities or any entity, corporation or agency, shall vest in the employee upon accrual and shall remain vested in such employees while he is employed by the Government notwithstanding the fact that from time to time, he may be transferred from one branch to another or to an autonomous agency, authority or other entity within the government of Guam. Sick leave accrued and unused at the time of separation from the government shall remain credited to the employee if such employee returns to government service.

(h) Lump Sum Payment Prohibited.

(1) No person who leaves the government service for any reason may receive a cash payment for sick leave accrued at the time that person leaves such service, except for payments upon death as provided in Chapter 7 of this Title, and except for lump sum payments to participants in the Defined Contribution Retirement System upon retirement.

(2) Lump sum payments described herein shall be calculated by multiplying:

(A) the employee’s hourly rate based on the average of the three (3) highest salaries received by an employee during that person’s years of credited service, by

(B) one-half (½) of the employee’s unused accumulated sick leave hours.

Payment of the lump sum for unused sick leave shall be the responsibility of the employee’s agency of employment.

(i) The provisions of this Section shall apply to all employees including those in the Judicial, Legislative and Executive Branches including those in autonomous entities.

(j) Notwithstanding any other law, the provisions of Subsection (a) of this Section shall not apply to members of the Guam Legislature, who shall be ineligible for the prospective accrual of sick leave after the effective date of this subsection.

SOURCE: Added by P.L. 16-023 (Aug. 11, 1981) as § 4107. Subsections (h) and (i) added by P.L. 17-057:1 (June 20, 1984). Subsection (g) amended by P.L. 17-081:36, P.L. 18-010:22 (Aug. 8, 1985). Subsection (j) added by P.L. 23-113:1 (July 26, 1996), effective at the commencement of the 24th Guam Legislature pursuant to P.L. 23-113:2. Subsection (c) amended by P.L. 24-094:2 (Oct. 14, 1997). Subsection (h) amended by P.L. 26-086:3 (May 17, 2002). Subsection (f)(6) amended by P.L. 28-
068:IV:36 (Sept. 30, 2005), effective January 1, 2006, pursuant to P.L. 28-
068:IV:47. Subsection (c)(2) amended by P.L. 32-228:2 (Dec. 30, 2014).

2016 NOTE: Subitem designations were added/altered to adhere to the Compiler’s codification and alpha-numeric schemes pursuant to authority granted by 1 Guam Code Ann. § 1606.

NOTE: P.L. 28-045:10 (June 6, 2005) changed the name of the Department of Education to the Guam Public School System. The passage of P.L. 30-050:2 (July 14, 2009) reverted the name to the Department of Education.