§18B-7-12 Maintenance of benefits for employees.
§18B-7-12. Maintenance of benefits for employees.
(a) On the effective date of this section, any individual employed on the day preceding the effective date of this section by the chancellor for higher education or commission maintains all benefits of employment held, accrued and afforded prior to the effective date of this section. Such benefits include, but are not limited to, retirement benefits, continued membership in the same retirement system, any insurance coverage, and sick and annual leave. For the purposes of leave conversion established in section thirteen, article sixteen, chapter five of this code, an employee is not a new employee, and the prohibition on conversion does not apply if the employee was eligible for leave conversion on the day preceding the effective date of this section. For the purpose of section thirteen, article sixteen, chapter five of this code:
(1) Each employee maintains all sick and annual leave accrued, and all rights to convert the leave that had been accrued on the day preceding the effective date of this section; and
(2) Each employee continues to maintain his or her status for eligibility under the provisions and application of said section thirteen as applied to the employee on the day preceding the effective date of this section.
(b) Prior to the first day of October, two thousand four, an employee may not be terminated, or have his or her salary or benefit levels reduced as the result of the higher education reorganization set forth in this article.