The City of Knoxville offers a generous leave package to all full-time employees:




Paid holidays include New Year's Day, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Veteran's Day is observed the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. 

These days shall be taken without loss of vacation credit, except for those employees required to maintain operations who receive holiday pay for working on such days.

NOTE: Holidays that fall on Sunday shall be observed on the following Monday by those employees working Monday through Friday; holidays that fall on Saturday shall be observed on Friday by those employees. 

For more information about paid holidays, please contact Civil Service at 865-215-2106.




Permanent full-time employees hired after Dec. 31, 1984, accrue annual vacation leave as follows: from 0 to 3 years = 10 days, from 3 to 7 years = 15 days, from 7 to 12 years = 20 days, more than 12 years = 24 days.

For more information about annual leave, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111.




The City allows you to sell up to 50% of your annual leave that you accrue in the current plan year. This can be used to help pay for your benefits, or it can simply increase your salary. For each hour of annual leave you sell, you receive credit for an hour's pay (prorated by pay periods over the year) back in your paycheck. 

A couple of rules to keep in mind: 
• You can sell annual leave only during annual enrollment. 
• You cannot sell annual leave if you have a negative leave balance at the time of enrollment. 
• Applies only to leave accrued in the current plan year. Does not include hours accrued from previous years.

For more information about Vacation Sell, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111.




City employees, other than regular part time and temporary employees, l earn sick leave with pay on the basis of one (1) day per month (12 days per year). Sick Leave begins to accrue at the end of the first pay period. Sick leave may be utilized for the employee's own illness or for medical and dental appointments. Sick leave not used during the calendar year may be carried forward to the following year. Part time employees (less than 35 hours per week) accrue a prorated rate of sick leave. 

Employees may use up to one week of their sick leave each calendar year for the medical needs of a spouse, child, or parent. 

When a City employee, other than a regular part time or temporary employee, has accumulated a total of one hundred twenty (120) sick leave days he/she shall be entitled to receive three (3) days additional pay for each year thereafter for which the 120 day balance is maintained. 

Upon retirement, employees who have a minimum balance of one hundred twenty (120) sick leave days may be compensated for sixty (60) days of pay. 

Employees are allowed up to 1 hour to attend scheduled appointments or meetings for City sponsored health assessments, exams, disease management, and other preventive and educational health services during paid work hours without use of leave. 

For more information about sick leave, please contact Civil Service at 865-215-2106.




Occasionally City employees contract a catastrophic illness or injury and exhaust their leave balances. The Sick Leave Bank is established to provide an optional benefit for employees who wish to join in order to accommodate such disabling circumstances.

Employees may join the Sick Leave Bank within forty-five (45) days of their date of hire or may join during open enrollment. To join the Sick Leave Bank, the employee must complete the Sick Leave Bank application form and an assessment of two (2) sick days will be taken from the employee's sick leave balance.

Members who have participated in the Sick Leave Bank and who meet all requirements of the policy are eligible to apply for sick leave days from the bank. Sick leave from the bank may only be granted to an employee as a result of a life-threatening or debilitating accident, illness or condition requiring an absence from work for 30 or more calendar days, as verified by the licensed health care provider having primary responsibility for the employee's treatment for the accident, illness or condition causing the absence. All personal accrued leave (sick, annual, forfeited, and advanced annual leave) must be used before receiving sick leave days from the bank.

Each initial grant of sick leave days from the bank is limited to a minimum of five (5) days and a maximum of twenty (20) consecutively scheduled working days for each illness or injury. After the initial grant, an extension (or extensions) of up to forty (40) sick leave days may be granted per illness or injury. The total sick leave granted to any one member shall not exceed sixty (60) days per calendar year or 120 days maximum per employee's employment.

For more information about the sick leave bank, please contact Civil Service at 865-215-2106. 




This policy addresses Parental Leave which means FMLA leave, whether paid or unpaid, that is taken for the birth or placement of a child. 
Employees who have been employed full-time for at least twelve (12) consecutive months may be absent for a period not to exceed four (4) months for Parental Leave.  Parental Leave shall be counted against the employee’s FMLA leave balance. Employees must carefully review and follow the City’s Family and Medical Leave policy when requesting and taking Parental Leave.  

Eligibility for Leave. To be eligible for Parental Leave, an employee must presently have available FMLA leave time and must submit relevant FMLA documentation, medical certification, and/or paperwork evidencing adoption process to Employee Benefits. The City may request a statement from a physician regarding the approximate date of the delivery and/or other appropriate date for beginning the Parental Leave period. The City may request a certificate from the employee’s physician certifying that the employee is physically able to fully resume the duties of the employee’s position.
 
Paid Parental Leave. Up to eight (8) consecutive weeks of Parental Leave may be paid. This paid Parental Leave shall be available for Parental Leave time taken on or after January 1, 2025. Employees may be eligible for the full eight (8) weeks of paid Parental Leave. The number of hours paid will be based on the employee’s Standard Hours in the City’s human resources platform.

Intermittent Leave Not Available. Parental Leave shall not be available on an intermittent basis. 

Parental Leave if Both Parents Work for the City. As stated above, if both parents are employed by the City, they shall be limited to a combined total of twelve (12) weeks of parental leave during any 12-month period. Where the Parents both use a portion of the total 12-week FMLA leave entitlement for either the birth of a child or for placement for adoption or foster care, the Parents would each be entitled to the difference between the amount he or she has taken individually for one of those purposes, and 12 weeks for FMLA leave for other purposes.  The “combined total” limitations do not apply where the reason for the leave is the serious 
health condition of either Parents or the serious health condition of a child in their household.

Where both parents are employed by the City, the combined paid Parental Leave amount shall not exceed eight (8) weeks in any 12-month period.
Tennessee Maternity Leave Statute: Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 4-21-408(e), the City hereby restates the following statutory parental leave requirements that run simultaneously with FMLA leave: 

(a) Employees who have been employed by the same employer for at least twelve (12) consecutive months as full-time employees, as determined by the employer at the job site or location, may be absent from such employment for a period not to exceed four (4) months for adoption, pregnancy, childbirth and nursing an infant, where applicable, referred to as “leave” in this section. With regard to adoption, the four-month period shall begin at the time an employee receives custody of the child.

(b) (1) Employees who give at least three (3) months' advance notice to their employer of their anticipated date of departure for such leave, their length of leave, and their intention to return to full-time employment after leave, shall be restored to their previous or similar positions with the same status, pay, length of service credit and seniority, wherever applicable, as of the date of their leave.
(2) Employees who are prevented from giving three (3) months' advance notice because of a medical emergency that necessitates that leave begin earlier than originally anticipated shall not forfeit their rights and benefits under this section solely because of their failure to give three months' advance notice.
(3) Employees who are prevented from giving three months' advance notice because the notice of adoption was received less than three months in advance shall not forfeit their rights and benefits under this section solely because of their failure to give three month's advance notice.

(c) (1) Leave may be with or without pay at the discretion of the employer. Such leave shall not affect the employees' right to receive vacation time, sick leave, bonuses, advancement, seniority, length of service credit, benefits, plans or programs for which the employees were eligible at the date of their leave, and any other benefits or rights of their employment incident to the employees' employment position; provided, that the employer need not provide for the cost of any benefits, plans or programs during the period of such leave, unless such employer so provides for all employees on leaves of absence.
(2) If an employee's job position is so unique that the employer cannot, after reasonable efforts, fill that position temporarily, then the employer shall not be liable under this section for failure to reinstate the employee at the end of the leave period.
(3) The purpose of this section is to provide leave time to employees for  adoption, pregnancy, childbirth and nursing the infant, where applicable;  therefore, if an employer finds that the employee has utilized the period of leave to actively pursue other employment opportunities or if the employer finds that the employee has worked part time or full time for another employer during the period of leave, then the employer shall not be liable under this section for failure to reinstate the employee at the end of the leave.
(4) Whenever the employer shall determine that the employee will not be 
reinstated at the end of the leave because the employee's position cannot be filled temporarily or because the employee has used the leave to pursue employment opportunities or to work for another employer, the employer shall so notify the employee.

(d) Nothing contained within this section shall be construed to:
(1) Affect any bargaining agreement or company policy that provides for greater or additional benefits than those required under this section;
(2) Apply to any employer who employs fewer than one hundred (100) full-time employees on a permanent basis at the job site or location; or
(3) Diminish or restrict the rights of teachers to leave pursuant to title 49, chapter 5, part 7, or to return or to be reinstated after leave.
                               
For more information about parental leave, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111. See Administrative Rule 5.20.




The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 was designed to protect your job while you take time off work due to a serious health condition.

You can use this leave for 1) your own serious health condition, 2) to care for your spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition, 3) bonding time after the birth of a child or after the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, 4) military leave, which is eligible for 26 weeks of leave in a 12-month period, or 5) to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness, also eligible for up to 26 weeks of leave in a 12-month period.

To be eligible for FMLA, you must have worked for the City for at least 12 months and have worked for at least 1,250 hours during that 12 months before you take leave. If you are eligible for FMLA, you are allowed 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period. 

FMLA Leave is unpaid leave. However, sick and annual leave balances may be used to receive a paycheck while out on FMLA. 

Employees are required to provide 30-day advance notice of the need to take FMLA leave when the need is foreseeable and such notice is practicable. When the need for leave is not foreseeable, the employee must provide notice to the employer as soon as practicable under the facts and circumstances of the particular case. Employees must submit an FMLA application and medical certification to the Employee Benefits Department to apply for FMLA leave.

For more information about FMLA, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111. Click here to learn more.




In case of a death in a regular employee's family, the employee shall be given time off with pay to attend the funeral. Such time shall not be charged to either his/her sick or vacation leave in accordance with the following:

A. Immediate Family.
1. Seven (7) days.
2. Immediate family is defined to include the following: qualified domestic partner, spouse, children, and parents.

B. Extended Family.
1. Three (3) days should interment be within a 400-mile radius;
2. Five (5) days should interment be beyond a 400-mile radius;
3. Extended family is defined to include the following: brother, sister, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, grandparents, grandchildren, great grandparents, stepmother, step-father, step-children, legal guardian.

C. In addition to the above bereavement leave provisions, a regular employee shall be authorized to use up to ten (10) working days of accrued sick leave in the case of the death of a parent, child, domestic partner, or spouse. In such a case, a copy of the death certificate may be required.

D. Temporary employees are not eligible for bereavement leave

For more information about bereavement leave, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111.




Employees of the City of Knoxville who are members of any military reserve organization are entitled a maximum of twenty (20) working days annually of paid military leave when engaged in the performance of duty or training in the Military Reserve. An employee on military leave shall receive his/her regular rate of pay for that period of leave. Requests for military leave shall include copies of the military orders. An employee ordered for pre-induction physical examination shall be given time off with pay for this purpose by showing his/her orders to the Department Head. Requests for leave of absence for any period of absence which exceeds ten (10) working days should be submitted at least two (2) weeks in advance of the beginning date of the requested leave. Requests for military leave in excess of twenty (20) working days annually shall be made as far in advance of the contemplated absence as is reasonably possible. The employee may but is not required to use accrued annual leave during an absence due to military service. 

An employee who is granted a leave of absence for military service shall have the time spent in military service credited to the employee's current service for the purpose of determining his/her benefits hereunder. The conditions and limitations for credit for leave for military service are: 

1. A leave of absence for military service will be limited to five cumulative years for a regular enlistment or other voluntary service; 

2. The employee must reapply for employment within ninety (90) days of his separation from military service, except that employees who are hospitalized at time of termination of military service will have up to two years to make application to the head of his/her department for re-employment; and 

3. Upon his/her return to employment from military service, the employee may, in addition to making his/her current contribution to the pension fund, make all contributions to the pension fund which he/she would have made had he/she been employed by the City during the time of said military leave of absence at his/her annual rate of pay at the date said leave of absence commenced. Additionally, upon release from military service such employee shall be re-employed by the City of Knoxville in a position no lower than the same pay grade and salary level than that in which he/she was employed at the time of departure, upon condition that such employee is physically and mentally qualified to perform the required duties.

4. Pursuant to the aforementioned conditions, the employee must report to duty with the City when instructed and will be required to furnish a copy of military orders showing the date of release from duty and a certificate showing satisfactory performance of duty. 

Pursuant to the City Code, the Mayor is authorized to issue an Executive Order to increase the benefits contained in this section for a period not to exceed two full years for each employee called to active duty. 

The City of Knoxville will comply with all federal laws applicable to the re-employment of individuals who have been on leave of absence due to military service. 

Requests for leave of absence for any period of absence which exceeds ten (10) working days should be submitted at least two weeks in advance of the beginning date of the requested leave. 

For more information about military leave, please contact Employee Benefits at 865-215-2111.