(a) A participant shall receive no benefits from the Plan for a period of 60 continuous calendar days from the onset of disability determined as the last actual day of service, the day of the disabling event if the disabling event occurred on a day other than a normal workday, or the day succeeding at least 365 calendar days after service as a teacher or employee, whichever is later. These 60 continuous calendar days may be considered the waiting period before benefits are payable from the Plan. During this waiting period, a participant may be paid such continuation of salary as provided by an employer through the use of sick leave, vacation leave or any other salary continuation. Any such continuation of salary as provided by an employer shall not include any period a participant or beneficiary is in receipt of Workers' Compensation benefits.
(b) During the waiting period a participant may return to service for trial rehabilitation for periods of not greater than five continuous days of service. Such return to service will not cause a new waiting period to begin but shall extend the waiting period by the number of days of service.
(1987, c. 738, s. 29(q); 1989, c. 717, s. 9; 1991 (Reg. Sess., 1992), c. 779, s. 2.)
CASE NOTES
Salary Continuation. - Because claimant had submitted an application for long-term disability and requested that he remain on the payroll until his accrued leave was exhausted, his request was sufficient exercise of his right to take salary continuation as a form of long-term disability payments, and because claimant was disabled prior to his termination, the trial court correctly ordered that claimant be compensated for the additional annual leave he would have accrued had he stayed on salary continuation through the end of his accrued annual leave. Williams v. North Carolina Dep't of Economic & Community Dev., 119 N.C. App. 535, 458 S.E.2d 750 (1995).