Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senator Joseph Kyrillos issued the following statement today regarding legislation they will both be sponsoring which will cap unused sick leave payouts for all public employees at $15,000. Similar legislation passed the Legislature in 2010 but was vetoed. The Senators plan on introducing the legislation again:
“We continue to see hundreds of thousands of dollars in payouts to employees simply because they were fortunate enough not to get sick. It’s a policy that is grossly unfair to the taxpayers of New Jersey and one the state cannot sustain given our current budgetary issues. Capping sick leave pay outs is a smart, common sense measure that will provide fairness to taxpayers in New Jersey.
“Since legislation was last attempted in 2010, the problem has only gotten worse, meaning we can no longer sit idly by and wait for the issue to solve itself. We look forward to working with our colleagues in the Legislature and the governor to pass this law and start bringing some sanity to the whole process.” [TLS]
It is simply not possible that people have a 20 year career and don’t get sick even once. These are the people being mazik everyone else and attending work sick so that they can eventually cash in. For those who have immune disorders or on chemotherapy being exposed to these illnesses can be life threatening.