Monthly passes for GET may be purchased at the following locations: County Administrative Center (Treasurer/Tax Collector), Public Services, and Human Services.

Cafeterias are located at Kern Medical, the Human Services building, the Lerdo facility, the County Administrative Center at 1115 Truxtun Avenue and the Superior Court building at 1415 Truxtun Avenue.

Kern County provides life insurance at no cost to their employees in certain bargaining units, as follows:

• Management employees: $400,000 (PDF)
• Confidential employees: $100,000 (PDF)
• Employees represented by the KCDOA, KCPA, KCPOA, SEIU and SEIU-CJU: $20,000 (PDF)

Guardian is the underwriter for the County-paid life insurance.

Change Beneficiary on the County-Paid Life Insurance

You will need to complete a new Beneficiary form if you wish to change your beneficiary on the County-paid life insurance. Kern County will always use the most recent dated Life Insurance Beneficiary on file. Completed forms must be submitted to Kern County Health & Wellness.

Life Insurance Beneficiary Designation / Name Change Form (PDF)

For questions about County-provided life insurance, contact Kern County Health & Wellness.

Membership in Strata Credit Union is offered to employees of Kern County. Services include:

• Payroll deduction program that allows an employee to have an amount of $25 or more sent to an account at Strata each payday
• ATMs in convenient locations

Contact:

Strata Credit Union
1717 Truxtun Avenue
(661) 327-9461
1 (800) 336-5376

This program allows an employee to electronically deposit their total net pay each payday into a checking account at any financial institution. The funds are available by payday morning. Pay information is available on-line on or before payday with complete earnings and deduction information. All County employees in bargaining units 1 - 6 (SEIU) are required to receive their pay via direct deposit.

Contact: Departmental Payroll Clerk for application.

Under special circumstances, employees who have worked more than 12 months for the County may be granted a leave of absence without pay for a variety of reasons.

For more information on specific types of leave, refer to Civil Service Rule 1200, Chapter 1 of the County Policy/Procedures Manual, or the most recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

Bereavement Leave

Employees may be granted the use of up to ten days of sick leave for the death and/or funeral of a member of their immediate family, as defined in the Family Sick Leave section of Chapter 1 of the County Policy/Procedures Manual.

Catastrophic Leave

Permanent employees who have exhausted all vacation, sick leave, and compensatory time ("comp-time or CTO") while on a qualified medical or family care leave who face financial hardship due to the catastrophic injury or illness of the employee or the employee's spouse, parent, or child may be eligible for paid catastrophic leave. This is contingent upon meeting specific requirements and receiving sufficient donated vacation hours from qualified County employees. (Sick leave and CTO may not be donated.) The maximum catastrophic leave is six months in any twelve-month period and must run concurrent with an authorized unpaid medical or family care leave of absence.

Disability Leave

Employees who are not fit for duty because of illness or non-job-connected disability may be granted leave without pay, up to a maximum of six months. This leave may be subject to prior use of all sick leave and other paid leave provisions.

Education/Personal Enrichment Leave

Employees interested in pursuing educational or personal enrichment opportunities may be granted a leave of absence without pay for up to one year.

Family Care Leave

Employees of the County who have completed at least one year of continuous service are entitled to a leave of absence for family care lasting up to 12 weeks during any 12 month period. Examples: care of a newborn; care of a child placed with an employee for adoption or foster care; care of a child, parent or spouse who has a serious health condition; or the serious health condition of the employee. Employees electing to take family care leave are required to exhaust all accrued sick leave (and may use all accrued vacation) before taking leave without pay.

Family School Activity Leave

Any full or part-time County employee who is a parent, guardian, or grandparent with custody of a child in grades Kindergarten through 12, shall be granted a leave from work up to a maximum of 40 hours per school year, but no more than 8 hours in any calendar month, to participate in their school activities. If no vacation or compensatory time off is available, leave without pay must be taken.

Military Leave

The County provides military leave for regular full or part-time County employees in accordance with government code provisions. Certain qualifying military leaves entitle County employees up to thirty days paid leave per year.

Personal Leave

Under certain circumstances an employee may request a personal leave of absence without pay for a period of not more than three months.

Note: Some types of paid time off vary depending on which union a given employee is represented by - for details, see the appropriate MOU. Additional details about paid time off can be found in Chapter 1 of the County Policy/Procedures Manual.

Holidays

Most employees earn eleven holidays per year. 56-hour fire departmental personnel earn six (6) on-duty days of holiday time effective July 1 of each year.

Jury Duty

Employees who are summoned to jury duty for times concurrent with normal duty hours will be granted leave with pay, provided that any jury fees received in compensation (not mileage) are returned to the County.

Rest (Coffee) Breaks

Employees may be allowed, at their department head's discretion, a fifteen minute rest or coffee break for every four-hour period worked. (Over the period of one year this amounts to over five (5) days of paid time.)

Sick Leave/Family Sick Leave

This benefit is permitted for illnesses which prohibit employees from performing their normal job functions. Sick leave is accrued on an hourly basis beginning with the first day of employment.

Accrual/accumulation rates:

• Most 40 hour/week employees: 8 - 12 sick leave days per year, with a maximum of 1,152 hours
• 56-hour fire personnel: 3.7 - 5.6 on-duty days per year, with a maximum of 67 on-duty days

Additional information:

• Up to ten days of accrued sick leave time may be utilized by the employee for the illness of an immediate family member.
• Catastrophic Leave is available in specific circumstances.
• Most employees who have reached the maximum sick leave accrual and who use less than 10 hours of sick leave in a year may be eligible for a sick leave bonus.
• If an employee takes active (not deferred) retirement or passes away, all or a portion of unused sick time will be paid to the employee or his/her beneficiaries. See the appropriate MOU.

Vacation Time

For non-extra-help employees, vacation time is accrued on an hourly basis beginning with the first day of employment, but new employees may not take paid vacation until completing their probationary period.

Accrual/accumulation rates:

• Full-time employees: 12 - 28 days per year
• Fire personnel working a 56-hour schedule: 4.6 to 11.6 hours per ODD (on-duty day)
• Employees on irregular work schedules: Refer to the appropriate MOU for accrual rates

Employees may take whatever vacation leave balance they have to their credit any time, provided their department head approves the vacation, and the amount taken at one time does not exceed twice the employee's annual accrual.

For most employees, unused vacation time may be accumulated up to a maximum of at least three times the annual amount earned.

If an employee separates from service, any unused vacation balance is paid to the employee.

It is the policy of the County of Kern to provide employees who have suffered occupational injuries, which temporarily limit their ability to perform normal job duties, with temporary limited duty assignments.

It is also the policy of the County of Kern to provide reasonable accommodation to employees who are permanently incapacitated for the performance of their job duties (whether or not the disability is job caused) with modified or available alternate work which is within their medical restrictions and for which they are qualified.

The complete Return to Work policy is contained within the County Policy/Procedures Manual, Chapter 1. For further information contact the Risk Management Division of County Counsel at (661) 868-3801.

Longevity Pay

Employees in certain bargaining groups with 10 or more years of service earn a percentage of base pay each period as longevity pay. Longevity pay applies to employees belonging to Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Kern County Prosecutor's Association (KCPA), and employees designated as "Confidential" for bargaining purposes.

Represented employees in the above groups will receive longevity pay as follows:

Professional Fee Reimbursement

Employees who are required to maintain federal or State licenses as a condition of employment may be reimbursed up to $500 annually for those fees. (Refer to the appropriate MOU and/or the County Policy/Procedures Manual for details.)

Suggestion Award Program

This program is designed to encourage employees to bring ideas which will increase revenue or cost savings (tangible) or improve safety, working conditions, morale or services (intangible) to the attention of management. Approved suggestions may receive cash prizes of up to $10,000. Program Details.

Uniform Allowances

Most employees who are required to wear uniforms receive a cash allowance for uniform purchase and maintenance. (Refer to the appropriate MOU for details.)

Most employees (notable exceptions are Deputy Sheriffs, Firefighters, and Management) are covered by State Disability Insurance. This program is administered by the State of California and provides for certain benefits during a doctor-certified disability.

Most employees are covered under the State of California Unemployment Code Provisions.

Contact:

EDD
(Employment Development Department)
1 (866) 333-4606

Employees may make contributions to United Way through payroll deduction.

Contact:

Departmental Payroll Clerk or
United Way
(661) 834-1820