Hartford Has Paid Millions Of Dollars For Unused Sick And Vacation Time

In the midst of a budget crunch, city leaders have laid off workers, cut funding for community groups and slashed aid for special events as Hartford tries to avert a bankruptcy filing.

But over the past six years, they've been on the hook for millions of dollars in payments to employees for unused sick and vacation time. The highest payment to a single worker exceeds $200,000.

A Courant review of Hartford records shows that the capital city paid out more than $16 million for employees' unused sick and vacation time between January 2010 and October 2016. The individual payments range from $36 to $217,467.

Many of the highest payouts are tied to union contracts, administrators said, which have allowed certain workers to walk away with tens of thousands or, in some cases, more than a hundred thousand dollars for accumulated time.

Read more: http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-unused-sick-vacation-payouts-20170504-story.html