Section 79. The salaries of the clerks of the district court department shall be 81.57 per cent of the salary of the chief justice of said department and shall be paid, subject to appropriation, by the commonwealth.

The clerks in the district court department shall devote their entire time during ordinary business hours to their respective duties and shall not, directly or indirectly, engage in the practice of law.

The clerks in the district court department appointed to said position prior to January first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and serving continuously thereafter shall be entitled to thirty days vacation and thirty days sick leave in each calendar year. Any such clerk may accumulate vacation and sick leave not used in any such year; provided, however, that the number of vacation days so accumulated shall not exceed sixty and the total amount of sick leave shall not exceed one hundred and eighty days; and provided, further, that no additional such days shall be accumulated after said January first except in accordance with the policies and procedures established by the court administrator pursuant to section eight of chapter two hundred and eleven B. All other clerks in the district court department shall be entitled to vacation leave and sick leave in accordance with the policies and procedures established by the court administrator pursuant to said section eight.