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County discontinues informal workers' compensation leave buyback; staff to draft written policy to support injured employees
Summary
County administrators moved to end an unofficial practice that recredited employees’ leave when employees signed over workers’ compensation checks; commissioners approved discontinuing the program and asked staff to return with a formal written policy to protect injured employees.
County staff told the Berkeley County Commission they would discontinue an unofficial ‘‘leave buyback’’ practice that manually recredited employees’ accrued leave when the employees endorsed and turned over workers’ compensation checks. The commission voted to end the practice immediately and directed staff to prepare a written policy to address employees’ financial needs while on work-related injury leave.
Deputy County Administration staff explained the historical practice: employees off on workers’ compensation who also had accrued leave could elect to use their leave; when the workers’ compensation check arrived, employees endorsed the check to the county, payroll made a manual calculation and recredited leave hours. Staff said the process was administratively error-prone, created retirement and tax-reporting complications, lacked deadlines and written guidance, and could produce consequences for affected employees.
Commissioners said they did not want injured employees left unable to pay bills while the county formalizes an alternative. Staff told commissioners the county recently added an employee-paid short-term disability option that runs alongside workers’ compensation and can reduce the need to use existing leave banks; staff also said they would return quickly with a written policy to ‘‘keep employees whole’’ without the current informal buyback process.
In the meeting: A motion to discontinue the leave buyback was made and passed by voice vote. Staff clarified there were no current employees on the buyback arrangement at the time of the motion. Commissioners asked staff to draft policy details and guardrails and to return for approval.
Next steps: The commission abolished the informal buyback process by motion and expects staff to present a formal written policy in the near term detailing allowable mechanisms for maintaining employee income while they are out on workers’ compensation.
