Article 13 - Severance Pay

Section 1. Eligibility. An employee shall be entitled to severance pay immediately following separation from State service by reason of: 

• Separation other than discharge following twenty (20) or more years of continuous State service; 

• Death; 

• Layoff, except for seasonal layoff; 

• Separation, for reasons other than discharge, following five (5) years of continuous State service, and who is immediately eligible at the time of separation for Medicare; 

• Separation, for reasons other than discharge, following ten (10) years of continuous State service, and who is immediately entitled at the time of separation to receive an annuity under a State retirement program. 

Severance pay shall be equal to forty percent (40%) of the employee's first nine hundred (900) hours accumulated but unused sick leave and twelve and one-half percent (12½%) of the employee’s accumulated but unused sick leave in excess of nine hundred (900) hours times the employee’s regular rate of pay at the time of separation. 

Employees who have been laid off and received severance pay as a result of the layoff, and are reappointed to state service, are eligible for additional severance upon subsequent separation if they meet the eligibility requirements in Section 1. For the purposes of eligibility, continuous service shall include time served since the last date of hire, including the period of layoff. 

Employees who separate from state service and receive severance pay as a result of meeting the continuous state service requirement described in Section 1, and are reappointed to state service are considered to have met the continuous service requirement for future severance payment. 

Should any employee who has received severance pay be subsequently reappointed to State Service, eligibility for future severance pay shall be computed upon the difference between the amount of accumulated but unused sick leave restored to the employee's credit at the time the employee was reappointed and the amount of accumulated but unused sick leave at the time of the employee's subsequent eligibility for severance pay. 

Section 2. Health Care Savings Plan. Employees who, for reasons other than layoff or death, are eligible to receive severance pay will have one hundred percent (100%) of severance pay, as defined in Section 1 above, and one hundred percent (100%) of vacation pay converted to an MSRS health care savings plan account. Employees who do not meet the requirements for the health care savings plan account, or whose combined severance and vacation pay totals less than five hundred dollars ($500) will continue to receive their severance and vacation payments in cash. See article 10 section 6 for vacation transfer to severance guidelines.