LEAVE SHARING
OBJECTIVE
It is the Commonwealth's objective to allow employees to participate in a leave sharing program.
I. EMPLOYEES TO WHOM POLICY APPLIES
[REVISED 12/94]
This policy applies to positions covered under the Virginia Personnel Act to include full-time and part-time classified, restricted, and "776" employees. (See section II(A) of Policy 2.20, Types of Employment.)
II. PURPOSE OF POLICY
The purpose of this policy is to permit an employee to donate annual leave to another employee who may need additional leave as a result of an illness or accident.
III. PROCEDURES
A. Donations to recipients shall be in the form of annual leave only.
B. Leave shall be shared intra-agency only, except in the following situations:
1. A family member (defined as an employee's spouse, parents/step-parents, siblings/step-siblings, and chil-dren/step-children) in one Executive Branch agency may share leave with another family member who works in any other Executive Branch agency.
2. Employees working in Executive Branch agencies which have Maximum Employment Levels (MEL) of 75 or less, may share leave with other employees in Executive Branch agencies with MEL of 75 or less.
C. Donors do not have to retain minimum balances of personal sick or annual leave, nor is there a limit on how many hours of annual leave they may donate.
D. Donations to a recipient shall be made in eight-hour increments.
E. Eligible recipients shall not be required to reimburse leave hours donated to them unless one of the following situations occurs:
1. Compensation is received from another source for the same period of time the employee received leave sharing hours, such as when monies are received from the leave sharing program and subsequently workers' compensation benefits are received retroactively for that same period of time; or
2. The Human Resource Office determines that abuse has occurred. The recipient may be required to repay all donated leave, and/or may be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with Policy 1.60, Standards of Conduct.
If repayment is required, leave payment shall be made at the current salary rate of the recipient, not the donor. Reimbursed leave hours will be returned to the original donor(s).
F. Donors shall complete a Donor Form when contributing leave and submit it to their Human Resource Office.
G. Leave given by a donor can be reclaimed by the donor only if the Donor Form has not yet been processed.
IV. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES FOR RECIPIENT
APPLICATION
A. All full-time and part-time employees shall be eligible to become recipients. Direct share hours will be prorated for part-time employees (e.g., if a classified part-time employee who works 20 hours per week receives 60 hours of donated leave, the donated leave will be paid to that employee at a rate of 20 hours per week).
B. Employees wishing to receive leave must initiate such requests by contacting their Human Resource Office. The Human Resource Office then will communicate the request to all potential donors, but will not reveal the identity of the requesting employee unless the employee gives his or her permission. In the event that an employee is physically or mentally unable to initiate a request through the Human Resource Office, a family member or the agency may file the request.
C. For all purposes other than the receipt of salary, employees receiving donations through the Leave Sharing policy shall be considered on leave without pay status (e.g., no accrual of annual or sick leave).
D. Recipients shall have no balance of personal leave (annual, sick, compensatory, overtime) and shall have been placed on leave without pay for ten consecutive workdays (80 hours) per medical condition per 365 day period prior to being eligible to receive leave from a donor.
NOTE: A chronic ongoing medical condition such as a kidney disease requiring dialysis would be considered one medical condition. Thus, an employee would have to be on leave without pay for ten days only once in a 365-day period for this condition. Thereafter, the employee immediately would be eligible for donations for this illness during the same 365-day period.
E. Use of leave under the program shall be for medical conditions defined as follows:
Any illness or injury which, as certified by a physician, requires medical attention and requires an employee's absence without pay for a period of at least ten consecutive workdays (80 hours) after all leave balances have been exhausted. (See section V for those medical conditions for which leave may not be donated.)
F. It is the responsibility of the employee to provide the required certification from a physician. The Human Resource Office may require a second physician's certification from a physician of the Human Resource Office's choice. Such certification will be at the agency's expense. However, if the two physicians disagree whether a medical condition exists, it is within the sole discretion of the agency to determine whose opinion prevails.
V. EXCLUSIONS
A. Medical conditions resulting from the following will be excluded from eligibility for leave sharing benefits:
1. any occupationally-related accident or illness for the period for which Workers' Compensation benefits have been awarded;
2. intentionally self-inflicted injuries; or
3. injuries occurring in the course of committing a felony or assault.
B. Employees are ineligible to use donated leave during the period of any disciplinary suspensions.
VI. AUTHORITY AND INTERPRETATION
A. This policy is issued by the Department of Personnel and Training pursuant to the authority provided in Title 2.1, Chapter 10, of the Code of Virginia. This policy supersedes Policy 4.07, Leave Sharing, effective January 1, 1993.
B. The Director of the Department of Personnel and Training is responsible for official interpretation of this policy, in accordance with section 2.1-114.5(13) of the Code of Virginia. Questions regarding application of this policy should be directed to the Department of Personnel and Training's Office of Policy and Personnel Programs. The Department of Personnel and Training reserves the right to revise or eliminate this policy as necessary.