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Purpose
The purpose of the Leave Donation Program is to assist employees faced with a serious medical illness or injury to themselves or an immediate family member by allowing employees to voluntarily transfer accrued vacation hours to another eligible employee within the same department or another County department who has exhausted all other paid leave due to a FML-eligible serious health condition.
Scope
This policy applies to all County employees who are eligible to donate or receive leave hours. Members of the Peace Officers Association are excluded from this policy because they participate in a separate leave donation program.
Eligibility
Only probationary or regular status employees within the County are eligible and may donate and receive leave. The Donated Leave Program is available to all eligible employees across all departments and all participating unions. Non-represented employees in the County may participate in this program irrespective of union participation or agreement
Further eligibility requirements are as follows:
Donating Employee - To qualify as a donating employee, an employee must be a probationary or regular-status employee working half-time or greater and have sufficient vacation accrued to cover donated time.
Requesting Employee - The requesting employee must be on an approved leave that qualified under the Family and Medical Leave Policy (see EPP #10). The employee must also demonstrate a need of at least 40 hours of donated leave.
The period in which an employee may receive donated leave is the period which would otherwise be unpaid because leave balances have been reduced to zero. Employees may not be receiving workers’ compensation benefits while receiving donated leave.
Qualifying Event
To receive donated leave, an employee must apply for and receive approval for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Policy. Employees may request donated leave for a serious health condition affecting themselves or their family member as defined in EPP #10. Donated leave may not be used for reasons other than a serious health condition.
Service Accruals And Other Benefits
Donating employees may donate accrued vacation leave. Donated vacation leave will be converted on a straight hour-for-hour basis to the recipient employee’s sick leave account.
The recipient employee, while using donated leave, will continue to earn sick leave and vacation leave. If the donated sick leave is unused when the employee returns to work, the recipient employee will retain any balance remaining.
For employees who terminate employment, sick leave on the books as a result of a donation will not be reported to PERS for purposes of calculating retirement benefits in accordance with PERS regulations.
Employees, while using donated leave, will continue to be eligible for County-paid health benefits.
Tax Liability/Benefit
The tax liability associated with donated leave will be the responsibility of the recipient, in compliance with IRS Revenue Ruling 90-29. Paid time will be subject to all tax liability associated with regular pay including Federal, State and FICA withholding.
Employees should consult with a tax advisor regarding possible tax advantages of donating leave under this program.
Procedures
Requesting Employee:
Any eligible employee may request a donation of hours by completing the Request to Receive Donated Leave form (see Appendix A). If the employee is not capable of applying in writing on their own behalf, a personal representative may make a written request for the employee. Before applying on behalf of an employee, every effort must be made to obtain consent from the employee or, in situations where this is not possible, the employee’s guardian. This form is obtained by contacting the Department of Employee Services (DES) Personnel or Risk/Benefits Division.
Requests for leave donation must be submitted to the Risk and Benefits Division, in conjunction with the Family and Medical Leave (FML) application when possible. Applications must be submitted within 15 days of the qualifying event when the need for donated leave is known. This application period may be extended if DES staff determines that the delay in making the request was caused by factors outside the leave recipient’s control. The request for donated leave will be reviewed in a confidential and objective manner. All determinations made by DES regarding qualification for donated leave are final.
Each request shall provide the following information concerning the potential leave recipient:
- Name, Employee ID Number, Department, Work Location, Work Phone, Supervisor’s Name, and Employment Status;
- Certification from the attending physician or other applicable health care provider with respect to the qualifying condition submitted with the FML application; and
- Any additional information that may be required to verify the information in the leave recipient’s request.
The recipient must have exhausted all accumulated leave including compensatory time, personal leave, vacation and sick leave prior to using any donated leave hours. If it can be shown by the requesting employee that during the anticipated period of disability all accrued leave will be exhausted, the request may be made prior to the actual disabling event. The recipient must not be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. The recipient employee may receive up to a maximum of twelve-week full-time equivalent (e.g. 480 hours for an employee whose normal work week is 40 hours) donated leave. The period of leave donation may not extend beyond the twelve-week FML entitlement.
The recipient may exercise their option under the program only once in any 12-month period. The County will determine eligibility under this provision by the use of the “rolling 12-month” basis, in which the 12-month period is measured backward from the date the leave request is effective.
Donating Employee:
Vacation time may be donated within 15 calendar days from the date of the “Posted” notice of request for donations. Hours are donated by completing the Request to Donate Vacation form as shown in Appendix B, and must be submitted to the department coordinator as indicated on the posted notice.
Leave may be donated in increments of one hour up to a maximum of 40 hours per donor.
Department Of Employee Services (Des) Responsibility
Requests:
Notification of determination of approval or denial will be made within 10 calendar days of receipt of a request. The determination will be completed by DES staff.
If the request is approved, the employee will be notified of the decision, the maximum amount of donated leave time the employee may receive, and the effective date. See Appendix D for an example.
If the request is denied, the employee is notified of the decision by letter. See Appendix E for an example of this letter.
The request is filed in the employee’s Family Medical Leave file with the final decision and all supporting documentation.
The DES/Risk & Benefits Division will approve the Request for Donation of Vacation Hours and work with the Department Coordinator to post the request. See Appendix C for an example.
Department Responsibility
Due to the emotional atmosphere and high sensitivity surrounding these health conditions and issues, it is extremely important to respect each employee’s decision to donate or not donate. It is not acceptable or appropriate to pressure, intimidate or otherwise attempt to convince any employee to take action in a donation issue that is not of the employee’s own volition.
A coordinator in the department/division where the requesting employee works will be responsible for coordinating the donation of vacation hours between the donor, recipient and payroll.
The Department Coordinator will receive requests to donate leave, clarify any needed information, and review leave records in conjunction with Payroll. The review process is necessary to verify that leave balances to be donated comply with program policy. Donated vacation requests will be processed by date of submission until the eligible amount of donated leave is reached. Donated vacation requests that exceed the amount for which the employee is eligible will be returned to the donating employee, and will not be transferred. The Department Coordinator will then forward the requests to Payroll.
Payroll Responsibility
Payroll reduces the donor’s vacation balances according to the approved request forms submitted by the Department Coordinator. Payroll will notify the donor of the transfer of leave. Payroll shall retain the Donation Request from each employee for an audit trail.
Upon notification of the donation of hours, Payroll will credit the receiving employee’s record with the authorized hours. The hours shall be credited as sick leave. A copy of the approved leave report shall be retained in the Payroll Department.
