As used in this subchapter:
(1) “Agency head” or “agency director” means the executive head of an agency, department, board, commission, bureau, council, or other entity of the state;
(2) “Annual leave” means vacation time with pay but does not include compensatory time;
(3) “Catastrophic illness” means a medical condition, as certified by a physician, of an employee, of the spouse or parent of the employee or of a child of the employee who may be claimed as a dependent under the Income Tax Act of 1929 which requires the employee's absence from duty for a prolonged period of time and which, except for the catastrophic leave program, would result in a substantial loss of income to the employee because of the exhaustion of all earned sick and annual leave;
(4) “Catastrophic leave” means leave granted to an employee as a result of a catastrophic illness, upon the employee's exhausting all sick and annual leave;
(5) “Catastrophic leave bank” means a pool of accrued annual and sick leave donated by employees;
(6) “Compensatory time” means time off in lieu of payment for overtime hours;
(7) “Educational leave” means any period of out-service training during which time the employee pursues a regular full-time course of instruction to acquire a specific skill or skills needed;
(8) “Employee” means a person regularly appointed or employed in a position of state service by a state agency, as defined in subdivision (11) of this section, for which he or she is compensated on a full-time basis;
(9) “Probationary employee” means a person certified from a list of eligibles or employed through a work test appointment and serving a probationary period;
(10) “Provisional employee” means a person who has been appointed to fill a position pending the establishment of a register for such a position;
(11) “State agencies” means all agencies, departments, boards, commissions, bureaus, councils, state-supported institutions of higher education, or other agencies except the following excluded agencies or positions within agencies: The elected constitutional officers of this state and their employees;
(12) The General Assembly and its employees, including employees of the Bureau of Legislative Research and Arkansas Legislative Audit;
(13) Members of the Supreme Court, members of the Court of Appeals, the Administrative Office of the Courts, circuit courts, and prosecuting attorneys, but not including deputy prosecuting attorneys;
(14) The Arkansas Department of Transportation; and
(15) All administrative, academic, or other nonclassified employees of the state-supported institutions of higher education;
(16) “Temporary employee” means a person who has been appointed from a register for a period of time not to exceed six (6) months;
(17) “Working day” means all regularly prescribed days of employment in which the employee performs those duties for which he or she was hired.
(18) For the purposes of this subchapter, a working day consists of eight (8) hours; and
(19) “Years of service” includes the total number of years of employment with all agencies of Arkansas state government whether such employment is continuous or not.