§2214. Annual vacation; sick leave; recovery from third persons

A.(1) Each employee of the police departments of the municipalities embraced by this Subpart, except the city of Westwego, shall, after having served one year with a respective department, be entitled and given with full pay an annual vacation leave of fifteen days during each calendar year, which shall not be denied to any such employee for any reason whatsoever.

(2) This Subsection shall also apply to municipalities having a population of more than two hundred fifty thousand.

B.(1) Each employee of the police departments of the municipalities covered by this Subpart, except the city of Westwego, shall be entitled to and given with full pay a sick leave aggregating not less than fifty-two weeks during any calendar year when the conditions actually warrant. Any police department employee who draws such full pay during sick leave shall have such pay decreased by the amount of worker's compensation benefits actually received by such employee.

(2) An employee of the police department, for purposes of this Subsection, shall not include personnel employed primarily to perform purely clerical or nonenforcement duties, including but not limited to the following: typographical duties, office machine operators, switchboard operators, filing clerks, stenoclerk, stenographers, and secretaries.

C.(1) When the cause for the granting of such sick leave is injury or disease sustained under circumstances creating in some third person other than the municipality a legal liability to pay damages in respect thereto, the municipality may bring suit against such third person to recover any amount which it has paid to its employee as sick leave under the provisions of this Section. If either the employee or the municipality brings suit against such third person, he or it shall forthwith notify the other in writing of this fact and of the name of the court in which the suit is filed, and such other may intervene as party plaintiff in the suit.

(2) In the event the municipality or the employee becomes party plaintiff in a suit against such third person and damages are recovered, such damages shall be so apportioned in the judgment that the claim of the municipality for the sick leave actually paid shall take precedence over that of the employee. If the damages are not sufficient or are sufficient only to reimburse the municipality for the sick leave which it has paid, such damages shall be assessed solely in its favor. However, if the damages are more than sufficient to so reimburse the municipality and to also reimburse it any other sums due it by such third person under the Worker's Compensation Act, then the excess shall be assessed in favor of the employee, and upon payment thereof to the employee, the liability of the municipality for additional sick leave beyond that already paid, insofar as relates to such injury or disease, shall cease to the extent of the amount actually so paid by such third person to the employee.

(3) No compromise with such third person by either the municipality or the employee shall be binding upon or affect the rights of the other.

D. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the provisions of Subsections B and C of this Section shall be applicable to the employees of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Police/Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting unit.

Amended by Acts 1968, No. 97, §1; Acts 1983, 1st Ex.Sess., No. 1, §6; Acts 1986, No. 671, §1; Acts 1995, No. 446, §1; Acts 2001, No. 370, §1.

NOTE: See Acts 1995, No. 446, §2 making Act applicable only to employees hired after 1/1/96.