• 1 through 19 years of service – 20 days/year • 20 or more years of service - 25 days/year After the first calendar year, vacation leave is credited on January 1 in anticipation of continued service. An employee who exhausts all paid vacation leave in any one year shall not be credited with additional paid vacation leave until the beginning of the next calendar year. A maximum of one year of vacation leave may be carried forward to the succeeding year. An increase in vacation leave shall be granted at the beginning of the calendar year in which the years of service requirement will be met. Sick Leave: Sick leave may be used by employees who are unable to work because of • Personal illness or injury; • Exposure to contagious disease; • Care, for a reasonable period of time, of a seriously ill family member of the employee’s immediate family; • Death in the employee’s immediate family, for a reasonable period of time. N.J.A.C defines immediate family members as follows: "Immediate family" means an employee's spouse, domestic partner (see section 4 of P.L. 2003, c. 246), child, legal ward, grandchild, foster child, father, mother, legal guardian, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, father-in-law, mother-in-law, and other relatives residing in the employee's household. A new employee is entitled to one paid sick leave day for the initial month of employment if he/she begins work on the 1st through the 8th day of the calendar month, one-half day if he/she begins on the 9th through the 23rd day of the month, and none if he/she begins work after the 23rd of the month. After the initial month of employment and up to the end of the first calendar year, an employee shall be credited with one day for each month of service. Thereafter, at the beginning of each calendar year in anticipation of continued employment an employee is credited with 15 days. Sick leave accumulates from year to year. Note: An employee who is absent for reasons that may entitle him/her to sick leave shall notify his/her supervisor (or follow the unit’s sick leave reporting procedure if different) promptly by the employee's usual daily reporting time. Failure to notify the supervisor may be cause for denial of sick leave for that absence and constitute cause for disciplinary action. For scheduled sick absences, the employee should follow the unit’s procedures for requesting time off. Managers/supervisors should contact Human Resources if an employee is out sick for at least three days as the employee may be entitled to leave under FMLA. (Please see below for more information on FMLA). 3 Consecutive Days of Absence: If an employee has been out for three consecutive days, please notify Human Resources. Human Resources will then send the employee information and a certification of health care provider for FMLA (Federal Family Medical Leave Act). 5 Consecutive Days of Absence: If an employee has been out for five consecutive days, he/she may not return to work without a doctor’s note. Please notify Human Resources if an employee has been out for at least five consecutive days. When the employee calls out of work, the supervisor should direct the employee to provide a doctor’s note to Human Resources on the first day he/she returns to work. 11