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Voluntary Donated Leave Program

 

Purpose:

The College recognizes staff members may experience serious personal or family medical emergencies or catastrophic illness that result in extended leave in excess of available accrued paid leave banks, thereby otherwise rendering leave unpaid. This voluntary shared leave program has been created to allow employees with accrued unused paid vacation hours to donate up to 40 hours into a paid leave bank (“the Donation Bank”) for use by eligible co-workers, in accordance with the guidelines detailed below. This program is strictly voluntary; no employee is or will be compelled to participate.

 

Eligibility for Receipt of Donated Paid Vacation:

Staff employees are eligible to request paid vacation hours from the Donation Bank when the employee:

  1. Has exhausted all of the employee’s accrued and available paid leave, such as sick, vacation and/or personal leave hours and does not meet the requirements for other income replacement benefit programs such as short-term disability (STD), long-term disability (LTD), or workers’ compensation benefits; and
  2. The employee or employee’s family member experiencing a “serious medical emergency or catastrophic illness or injury” necessitating the employee’s leave from work.A staff employee must use the employee’s own accrued unused paid leave balances before an employee may use any donated time.

Definitions: 

Family members means: an employee’s spouse, dependent child, or parent, as those terms are defined under the Family & Medical Leave Act.

A serious medical emergency or catastrophic illness or injury means: an incapacitating, critical, or catastrophic illness or injury that poses a threat to life and/or requires inpatient or continuing treatment by a health care provider or hospice health care and has been certified by licensed healthcare practitioner. Any “serious health condition” which qualifies for FMLA leave meets this definition. This definition may also include:

  • Cancer – In a treatment program requiring radiation or chemotherapy;
  • Major surgery for a life-threatening condition;
  • A serious accident;
  • Heart attack;
  • In a treatment program requiring kidney dialysis;
  • Other serious or life-threatening illnesses; or diagnosed as terminally ill; and for which a physician has certified the condition is likely to result in the cessation of active work for 30 or more calendar days.

Requesting Donated Leave:

Employees requesting to receive donated paid vacation hours must complete the Donated Leave Request Form found on the Human Resources portal and submit it to Human Resources. In addition, the employee must submit certification of the employee’s or family member’s qualifying serious medical emergency or catastrophic illness or injury by a healthcare practitioner, if not previously submitted. Human Resources may require an updated certification as reasonably necessary to apply these guidelines.

Limits and Exceptions:

  • Recipient employee identities will not be disclosed to donating employees.
  • An employee donating leave to the Donation Bank is not allowed to designate the donation be used only for a specific leave recipient or restrict the use of the donated hours from use by particular employees or for use for only a certain group of employees.
  • Employees who receive donated time may receive no more than (120 hrs. maximum)
  • Nothing in this policy will be construed to limit or extend the maximum allowable leave available to an employee under the Family and Medical Leave Act or other applicable law, or the application of the College’s regular attendance polices, practices, or expectations.  
  • Maternity leave and short-term, common conditions or illnesses will not be eligible for donated leave hours unless there are extenuating medical complications that meet the definition for guidelines of a serious medical emergency or catastrophic illness or injury.

Eligibility to donate leave:

  • Employees wanting to donate hours must complete the Voluntary Leave Donation Form.  
  • Any employee may donate only vacation hours. The minimum number of vacation hours that an eligible employee may donate is four (4) hours per calendar year and the maximum number that an employee may donated per calendar year is (40) hours; provided, however, that in no event may the number of vacation hours donated reduce the donor’s accrued unused vacation leave below an annual accumulation of (40) hours, or prorated to (20) hours for part-time employees.
  • Sick leave is excluded from donation.
  • Employees who are currently on an approved leave of absence are not eligible to donate.

Administration:

  • Human Resources will administer this program.
  • The donation of time is made in hours. These hours will be converted to a dollar value using the donor’s hourly rate of pay and placed in the donation bank.
  • When a Donation Leave Request Form is processed and approved, money from the donation bank will be converted to the recipient’s base hourly rate to be used during the approved leave period. In other words, donated hours will be paid at the receiving employee’s current rate of pay.
  • All paid leave granted to the recipient is taxable as wages and is subject to appropriate tax withholding.
  • Under current tax law, donor employees may not claim an expense, tax deduction, or a deduction for a charitable contribution for any of the leave donated to the donation bank. Please consult your personal tax professional on advice in this area.
  • Donated Leave Request Forms will be processed and acted upon in chronological receipt by the Human Resources Department as measured from the date the fully-completed Donated Leave Request Form and all fully-completed required medical certifications are received.
  • Leave requested that is not used will be returned to the Donation Bank.
  • Unused donated hours do not remain in the Donation indefinitely. All hours donated in a fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) and remaining unused at the end of the fiscal year will expire and be deemed forfeited as of the close of business on the last day of the fiscal year.

Confidentiality:

Information regarding hours donated or received is confidential, as is all medical information. Individual leave records are also confidential.