HomeMy WebLinkAboutPolicy HR 13 - Employee Leave Donation'(ES
Deschutes County Administrative Policy No. HR-13
Effective Date: September 22, 2008
EMPLOYEE LEAVE DONATION
STATEMENT OF POLICY
It is the policy of Deschutes County to allow employees to voluntarily donate time management
leave, vacation leave, or compensatory time to other employees who are out of leave due to an
Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA) / Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) qualifying event.
APPLICABILITY
This policy applies to all regular County employees who accrue leave and have completed their
initial probationary period.
POLICY AND PROCEDURE
General
To be eligible to receive donated leave, an employee must have been approved for OFLA/FMLA
leave. OFLA/FMLA requires that the employee or employee's immediate family member have a
serious and extended illness or injury (immediate family member and serious/extended illness are
defined in the County's OFLA/FMLA policy).
Procedure
Eligibility for Employee to Receive Donated Leave
An employee interested in leave donation shall contact the Personnel Department. The Personnel
Department will determine whether an employee is eligible for donated leave. A physician's
statement may be requested of the employee requesting donated leave. The employee requesting
the donated leave must first use (or plan to use and have available) 40 hours of paid leave and then
exhaust all available paid leave including time management, sick leave (if applicable), floating
holidays, and compensatory time.
If an employee does not have a minimum of 40 hours of paid leave accrued (when the leave is
requested), they are not eligible for the donated leave program. The County Administrator may
waive the 40 hour requirement in unusual circumstances where an employee falls below 40 hours of
leave due to one occurrence of OFLA/FMLA leave and does not have sufficient time to build up
his/her leave bank before another occurrence of OFLA/FMLA leave.
Employees with a serious and extended illness are encouraged to apply for long term disability if
the illness is expected to last for several months. An employee using donated leave will continue to
accrue benefits and leave time, but must exhaust all leave as accrued.
Policy No.
HR -13, Leave Donation Program
Eligibility for an Employee to Donate Leave
Employees who would like to donate leave must have a leave balance of at least 80 hours remaining
(this includes all types of leave, with the exception of the floating holiday) after the donation. Part
time employees must have a minimum prorated balance (for example, an employee working as a
0.5 FTE would need 40 hours).
Donating Leave
The Personnel Department will administer the leave donations. Solicitations by department heads,
supervisors, or co-workers are not permitted. Once an employee receives approval to use donated
leave, the Personnel Department will send out a notice to County employees of the request for
donated leave. The notice will include the name and department of the employee requesting the
leave.
Donated leave shall only include time management leave, vacation leave, and compensatory time.
It shall not include sick leave or the floating holiday. To donate leave, an employee must sign a
release document (Leave Donation Form — available on the intranet). Donors shall remain
anonymous and all contribution records shall be retained in confidential files. Donations of leave
will be on an hour -for -hour basis. The minimum contribution is eight hours for full-time employees
and four hours for part-time employees. Donations cannot be retroactive.
Once approved, the contributions will be placed in the recipient's leave bank in the order they were
received, but only as the recipient needs leave each pay period. In the event a request is processed
but the recipient does not use the leave, the leave will be restored to the donor's leave bank.
The maximum amount of donated leave that can be received by an employee in a rolling 12 month
period is 480 hours (prorated for part-time employees). If the employee using donated leave is
eligible for long-term disability, the employee is limited to the amount of donated leave that is
required to begin long-term disability. Once on long-term disability, an employee is not eligible for
any type of donated leave.
Approved by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners September 22, 2008.
Dave Kanner
County Administrator
Policy No.
HR -13, Leave Donation Program