A retiree reemployed in a benefit-eligible position after observing the termination and reemployment rules cannot receive additional retirement credit for pre-retirement unused sick leave, including any remaining hours that did not convert to whole months of service credit at retirement. When an employee retires, it is important to “zero out” unused sick leave balances in your payroll system.  For SAM II employers, MOSERS sends a monthly report of recent retirees to confirm the removal of sick leave balances in SAM II.

Sick leave hours accrued by an employee at a MOSERS covered college or university may be transferred to a state agency or vice versa.

To verify a member’s transferred sick leave from a state agency to a MOSERS covered college or university position, you will need to do the following:

• The HR representative from the college or university will need to contact the SAM II HR representative from the employee’s previous state agency employer.
• For agencies that do not report sick leave in SAM II, unused sick leave should be reported in hours only (not days). If the employee has no sick leave, please enter “0.” Do not leave blank.

For retirement purposes, employees may receive service credit for unused sick leave as reported by the last employer only.

We understand that there is often confusion regarding unused leave upon retirement. This is a common concern so we have provided a quick overview below that you can reference when asked by employees.

Unused Annual Leave:

Did you know?

• The amount of your unused annual leave/vacation has no impact on your MOSERS pension benefits.
• Your employer should pay you for at least some of your unused annual leave. The amount of annual leave that you may get paid for is determined by your agency or university, not by MOSERS.
• Your agency or university may have a limit on how much they will pay out. Limits may vary from one agency or university to another. Check your employee policies for details well in advance of your retirement date.

Unused Sick Leave:

Did you know?

• Your monthly pension benefit from MOSERS will be based on your final average pay and your credited service. This can include unused sick leave.
• Each block of 168 hours of unused sick leave is converted into one month of service credit to be used in your pension benefit calculation. (There is no partial credit; any amount less than 168 hours will be equal to zero additional months of credited service.)
• Unused sick leave does not count as service in determining retirement eligibility but it can increase your benefit amount once you have become eligible for retirement.
• If you use sick leave near your retirement date, it may affect previous benefit estimates you have received.
• If you are eligible for BackDROP and elect to take it, you will receive credit for unused sick leave accrued during your BackDROP period.