In 2006, Fitial issued Directive No. 254 which stopped the accrual of annual leave for appointees during their period of appointment.
Fitial, who will serve a second term of office for five years or until 2015, said he made that decision based on understanding that his political appointees are on-call 24 hours a day.
However, he said the system was abused.
He now sees the need to reinstate the annual leave accrual system among his appointees.
“I stated in my directive that as a salaried employee as established by statute, you are on duty 24-hours a day for the full period of your appointment. This has resulted in much abuse of leave and appointees expecting full compensation for incomplete work hours. This is poor management practice. I expect no more than full diligence and dedication from each of you,” the governor wrote in his April 26 memo.
To stop abuses on the system, Fitial said all political appointees must first have their leave for personal or medical reasons be approved and those will be credited against their earned leave at the rate of eight hours per payroll.
“Therefore, effective Jan. 11, 2010, I am reinstating all annual leave accrual at the rate of eight hours per pay period. I expect leave application requests, whether it be for personal or medical reasons, be submitted on a timely manner for approval prior to taking such leave,” Fitial said.
