Thursday, 4:30 PM
Massport cuts sick pay, but lets current employees cash in
By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff
The Massachusetts Port Authority board of directors voted today to bring its lucrative sick-pay policy in line with other state agencies, but agreed to leave the policy in place through the end of the year.
The current policy, which pays retiring Massport employees 100 percent of the value of their unused sick days, is the most generous in state government and has provided some retiring employees with payouts topping $200,000.
Governor Mitt Romney called for Massport to adopt the policy of other state agencies, which provide compensation for one-fifth of an employee's unused sick time. The Massport board agreed to do that for sick time accrued after Dec. 31.
But the board's vote not to apply the new policy to current employees until next year means that some top executives are eligible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused sick time that they can cash when they retire.
