(a) Each officer and employee of the several departments and agencies of the state government who is scheduled to work one thousand six hundred (1,600) hours or more in a fiscal year, whether compensated on hourly, daily, monthly or on a piecework basis, shall be granted absence from work with pay based upon that officer's or employee's accrued annual leave, the time and amount of absence to be approved at the discretion of the head of the department or agency and subject to audit by the commissioner of human resources.

(b) An eligible employee shall accrue annual leave based on the total creditable service as follows:

(1) Any officer or employee who has less than five (5) years of full-time service and was not in the active employment of the state of Tennessee on July 1, 1969, shall accrue annual leave at the rate of one (1) day for each month of service or major fraction thereof, and may accumulate a maximum of thirty (30) work days;

(2) Any officer or employee who has less than five (5) years of full-time service and was an active employee of the state of Tennessee on July 1, 1969, and has had continuous employment since July 1, 1969, shall accrue annual leave at the rate of one and one-half (1½) days for each month of service or major fraction thereof, and may accumulate a maximum of thirty-six (36) work days;

(3) Any officer or employee who has five (5) years and less than ten (10) years of full-time service shall accrue annual leave at the rate of one and one-half (1½) days for each month of service or major fraction thereof and may accumulate a maximum of thirty-six (36) work days;

(4) Any officer or employee who has ten (10) years and less than twenty (20) years of full-time service shall accrue annual leave at the rate of one and three-quarters (1¾) days for each month of service or major fraction thereof and may accumulate a maximum of thirty-nine (39) work days; and

(5) Any officer or employee who has twenty (20) years or more of full-time service shall accrue annual leave at the rate of two (2) days for each month of service or major fraction thereof and may accumulate a maximum of forty-two (42) work days.

(c) Saturdays, Sundays and official holidays shall not be counted in computing the period of time to which an officer or employee is entitled, unless such days are considered as work days for the employee in the employee's particular assignment.

(d)

(1) For purposes of determining accrual rates and maximum accrual limits, one thousand nine hundred fifty (1,950) hours shall constitute a full-time work year. Any month, which was part of a one thousand six hundred (1,600) hour or greater annual schedule, in which an eligible employee is scheduled to work a full month, and actually works one tenth (⁄) of one (1) hour more than one half (½) the scheduled hours, shall be creditable for purposes of subdivisions (b)(1)-(5).

(2) For individuals holding full-time positions in the department of education which require three (3) years' experience as a certified professional employee in a Tennessee public school system, prior teaching or administrative experience in Tennessee public schools shall be creditable for purposes of subdivisions (b)(1)-(5), not to exceed three (3) years.

(e) Part-time employees, employees holding temporary positions for less than six (6) months, seasonal employees, and emergency employees in the state service are expressly excluded from the provisions hereof.

(f) An eligible employee who is compensated for overtime work by receiving compensatory time instead of overtime pay shall be entitled, at any time during the year, to use annual time before having to use compensatory time when the employee has accumulated annual time within two (2) days of the maximum annual time the employee is allowed to accumulate in such employee's service group code.