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2019 Op. Iowa Att'y Gen. [i] (2019)

handle is hein.sag/sagia2019 and id is 1 raw text is: The Honorable Charles Schneider Office of the Attorney General February 4, 2019 2019 WL 568486 (Iowa A.G.) Office of the Attorney General State of Iowa *1 Opinion No. 19-2-1 *1February4, 2019 *1 MILITARY; PUBLIC EMPLOYEES; CITIES: *1 Iowa Code Section 29A.28. Any city policy that limits the number of hours allotted an employee for paid military leave must not reduce the benefits for paid military leave under Iowa Code Section 29A.28 which requires up to 30 days of paid military leave per year; no requirement that employees take leave for days they are not scheduled to work for terms of military service less than 30 days in duration; treating a shift that encompasses more than one calendar day as one workday against the annual leave allotment. (Bennett to Schneider 2-4-19) *1 The Honorable Charles Schneider *1 State Senator *1 Iowa Statehouse *1 Des Moines, Iowa 50319 Dear Senator Schneider: *1 You asked for a formal opinion on the calculation of paid leave required to be afforded to city employees under Iowa Code section 29A.28 (granting state and local governments employees ordered to qualified military service leave of absence without loss of pay for the first 30 days of such duty). In particular, you asked if a city that provides up to 240 hours of paid leave each calendar year for the hours missed from city employment while serving in military uniformed service complies with this statute. You indicated the city's policy has been criticized by city firefighters that work three 24-hour shifts separated by 24 hours off with a 96-hour leave before starting the next cycle. *1 It is our conclusion that paid leave required under Iowa Code section 29A.28 sets a floor of benefits which must be afforded local government employees while in qualified service, and no violation of this statute occurs unless the compensation offered by the covered public employer falls below this minimum level of compensation. The calculation method used by the city to grant military leave pay to city firefighters working 24-hour shifts, as outlined in your letter, may fail to provide the statutorily-required compensation under some circumstances. *1 Iowa Code section 29A.28(1)(a) provides that employees or officers of the state, political subdivisions of the state, and municipalities must be afforded leave of absence without loss of pay during the first 30 days of qualified military leave. Prior opinions of this office determined that this term of paid leave is limited to 30 days annually. Op. Atty. Gen. #74-3-10. Prior case law determined that the 30 days of paid military leave of absence is calculated using calendar days, not working days. Painters and Allied Trades v City of Des Moines, 451 N.W.2d 825 (Iowa 1990). *1 In 2003 Iowa Code section 29A.28 was amended to provide that qualified military service for less than 30-days-required leave of absence be taken for only those days for which the public employee or officer would normally have worked, rejecting the calendar day test set out in the Painters case for these shorter-term absences. 2003 Iowa Acts ch. 142, § 3 (80th G.A.). The General Assembly amended Iowa Code section 29A.28(l)(b) further in 2008 to only require employees to take one day of leave of absence for a workday that encompasses more than one calendar day. 2008 Iowa Acts ch. 1003, § 2 (82 nd G.A.). *2 The cumulative effect of these changes is that a city worker who normally works a 24-hour shift is debited one day of the 30 days of annual paid leave allotted under Iowa Code section 29A.28(l)(b) while in military service lasting less than 30 days, even if that shift spans more than one calendar day. A city that grants a fixed number of hours of military leave to its employees for qualified service in lieu of the 30 days provided under Iowa Code section 29A.28 must ensure that this alternative method of calculating military leave pay provides at least as much paid military leave as awarded under the methodology of Iowa Code section 29A.28. *2 Utilizing the 24 horns on, 24 hours off, for three shifts followed by 96 hours off schedule outlined in your request letter, please see the attached hypothetical schedules providing two deployments within the same calendar year as examples. As illustrated in these scenarios, it is possible that an employee could miss more than 240 hours of civilian work while serving qualified military duty of less than 30 days. These employees would qualify for paid leave under Iowa Code section 29A.28 beyond the 240 hours provided under the city policy outlined in your letter. *2 While the city policy outlined in your letter does provide flexibility to allow an employee to only take off work for only those hours where they are absent from their city duties to fulfill their military service, it fails to accomplish the main objective of Iowa Code section 29A.28(l)(b) under some scenarios, to provide full compensation for the first 30 days of absence of the public employee for the actual days the employee would have worked but for their military service. As shown in examples attached, there are some cases where the city's allotted hours of compensation for military leave runs out before the required days of pay are reached - especially where employees are scheduled for extended workdays.

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