The City of San Antonio allows civilian full-time employees to accrue and take leave for vacation, holidays, illness or other personal matters. The City also has additional leave benefits for paid and unpaid leave. It is intended that Annual Leave and Personal Leave may be used for and shall comply with any federal or state law requirement to provide paid sick/medical leave. See Administrative Directive 4.4, Leave Administration for complete details.

Holiday Schedule: Click Here To View the Holiday Schedule.

Personal Leave
Personal Leave is provided for vacation, illness or to attend to personal matters. This type of leave accrues on a quarterly basis.

New Employees
Upon completion of the six-month initial employment period, new employees are granted personal leave in the amount of 40 hours (the hours are noted on the employee’s paycheck in the seventh month). After the completion of the first year of employment, employees accrue personal leave each January, April, July, and October.

Personal Leave Buyback
Personal Leave Buyback will be offered to employees again this year, and will be conducted in November. Personal Leave must be used within the calendar year, and employees can sell back to the City any unused hours, or forfeit their hours. Some employees may have not yet completed their initial 12 months of employment by December 31st, and, therefore, are not eligible to sell back hours. However, those employees may carry over their Personal Leave balance to the following year. View the Personal Leave Accrual Table.

Annual Leave
Annual Leave is provided for vacation, illness, or to attend to personal matters. This type of leave accrues monthly on the employee’s anniversary date following completion of the initial six month employment period. Unused balances may be carried over to the next calendar year up to a maximum of 400 hours.

Employees on approved Family and Medical Leave, Extended Sick Leave (short term disability), Workers’ Compensation, and Military Leave may carry over to the next calendar year amounts greater than 400 hours.
View the Annual Leave Accrual Table

Long Term Disability
The City provides at no cost to the employee a long term disability program to any full-time civilian employee that is unable to work as a result of a non-work related disability. Total benefits are calculated at 40% of salary, minus all offsets (i.e. Social Security, other coverage, etc.) Benefits may begin after 26 weeks of short term disability benefits.

Short Term Disability
The purpose of the Short Term Disability program (referred to as the Extended Sick Leave Program) is to provide regular full-time civilian employees extended sick leave benefits for non-job-related illnesses or injuries. To be eligible for this program, an employee must have completed the initial six-month probationary period and have been on leave for illness/injury for more than five consecutive work days. The benefits are granted according to the following schedule:

Number of weeks of Benefits / Percentage of Compensation

Catastrophic Leave
Full-time civilian and uniformed employees' experiencing a life-threatening situation (i.e. fire, tornado, etc.) and/or their own severe medical condition can receive Annual Leave or Personal Leave donated hours from other full-time civilian and uniformed employees. Catastrophic leave donations may be made to employees in other departments or funds.

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
The Family Medical Leave Act provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to "eligible" employees for certain family and medical reasons to include military exigency and caregiver leave during a 12 month "rolling" period. All full-time, part-time and temporary employees must have been employed with the City for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 month period prior to the commencement of the leave are eligible for family and medical leave. Employees are required to substitute accrued personal leave, annual leave, holidays, and incentive leave for unpaid leave. For additional information on the Family Medical Leave Act, refer to A.D. 4.20, Family Medical Leave Act of 1993.

Military Leave
The City of San Antonio complies fully with the provisions of USERRA. The City will grant leaves of absence to employees who are in the National Guard or are Reserve Military Personnel who, voluntarily or involuntarily, leave employment positions to undertake military service during periods of war or peace. Employees returning from active duty will be restored to the same position held at the time of activation or to a position "of like" seniority, status and pay, if physically and mentally qualified to perform the duties of that position. This is contingent upon an employee being discharged from military service under honorable conditions and upon timely return from military leave.

Voluntary Furlough Program
All active, full-time and part-time civilian employees, including probationary employees, will be given the opportunity to voluntarily take up to 40 hours of unpaid leave as scheduled furlough days during the current fiscal year. See the 2012 Voluntary Furlough Program Let's Talk About or the Voluntary Furlough Program Fast Facts for additional details.