The Badger Herald

NEWS

Legislature to allow retroactive sick leave

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by Courtney Johnson

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Unlike the average citizen, Wisconsin legislators will now be able to retroactively claim sick leave.

Several legislators have been denied attempts to retroactively file sick leave they took due to illness. Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, was recently denied her sick-leave claim after her 2005 heart surgery caused her to miss five days of the Assembly session.

Additionally, Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, was denied her retroactive sick-leave claim after a 2005 car accident shattered her pelvis.

After further review this week, Assembly Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller decided to allow the retroactive sick leave requests if the legislators file a memo stating the dates missed and number of sick leave hours taken.

Incoming Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said he thinks the changes to the legislative sick leave policy are fair.

"What we've established now is a reporting policy for a benefit that we should have been able to report in the past," Huebsch said.

Huebsch added it is difficult to determine what constitutes a sick day for legislators, as much of their work is done outside the Capitol building.

But some people are saying the policy changes might be unethical.

"Almost anybody who has a job has to report sick leave," said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, the state's largest non-partisan ethics reform organization. "It's a small snapshot of why the Legislature needs to get serious about ethics reform, and they need to abide by the same rules that other citizens abide by."

Huebsch said he does not see any ethical problems arising from the sick leave policy changes.

"What we have now is an opportunity for individuals to report a benefit they didn't even know they had," Huebsch said.

Legislators receive 84.5 hours of sick leave per year, leaving them with little time to recover if they do encounter major health concerns. However, all unused sick leave does roll over to the following year.

Wisconsin state employees and legislators also have the option to roll over all unused sick leave into credit that can be used to purchase state-sponsored insurance.