Sick leave, vacation buyouts out of step with most employees

As the changing of the guard in state government brings to light the big payouts that public employees can receive for unused vacation and sick time, now is a good time to consider again whether this long-ingrained practice is reasonable.

Very few people who work in the private sector have the option of saving their sick or vacation time to trade for cash later; nor can very many carry it over for another year. Yet building up time-off balances, with the option of an eventual cash-out, long has been an expected perk of government work.

It may be that the circumstances that once made the perk reasonable have changed enough to warrant another look.

This is not a call to question the fundamental collective-bargaining rights of public employees; public support for publicemployee unions was expressed clearly in 2011 after Republican lawmakers passed the ill-fated Senate Bill 5.

That measure would have severely limited public-employee unions’ right to bargain for anything other than wages. It ignited a statewide referendum campaign by police, firefighters and other public-employee unions and was resoundingly and deservedly overturned by voters.

Phasing out vacation and sick-leave payouts, or phasing in limits to them, on the other hand, still would leave most public employees with enviable job terms and compensation.

Ohio taxpayers have paid between $30 million and $40 million on this benefit annually in recent years.

A Monday article by Dispatch Reporter Randy Ludlow included some of the five- and six-figure payouts that went recently to state employees who retired or changed jobs in the new administration of Gov. Mike Dewine. As of year’s end, more than 5,000 employees cashed out “separation leave” claims totaling $32.5 million.

Of those, 528 were for more than $20,000. The biggest check, for $107,941, went to a 29-year employee of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services who retired as a psychologist supervisor.

Defenders of the practice cite many justifications: It originated in a time when public employees had low salaries. Some workers in positions deemed essential, such as prison guards and highway workers, can be denied the vacation time they ask for. Some public employees don’t have short-term disability so they have to be able to save sick time in case they’re injured or seriously ill.

But government pay levels no longer lag the private sector, and other special circumstances could be accounted for. Payouts could be allowed for “essential” employees who are denied leave time even if they’re scaled back for others. If public agencies don’t offer employees short-term disability, they should consider doing so as a less-costly alternative to storing up leave.

It also is important to consider the sheer amount of sick, vacation and personal time afforded state employees in Ohio — as much as six weeks of vacation annually, for example, not often matched in the private sector. With that much vacation time, one can save up vacation to be cashed out later and still enjoy ample time off.

If nothing else, lawmakers should take a hard look at cash payouts to supervisors and other high-level employees. Unlike most union members, they often enjoy comp time and flexible schedules that make saving up vacation time even easier.

All workers deserve paid vacation and sick time. Whether public employees also deserve a cash windfall at taxpayers’ expense is a fair question.