Washington State Community College provides a catastrophic leave program as one of the employment related benefits afforded to its
employees. The purpose of the leave program is to permit employees to
voluntarily donate unused sick leave to fellow full-time employee(s) who are in critical need of leave due to a catastrophic illness/condition/injury of the employee or his/her close family relative and who have run out of paid leave.
A. Eligibility Full-time Washington State employees are eligible to receive shared leave if:
1. The Director of Human Resources makes the determination whether the Employee or a close relative of the employee has an extraordinary or severe medical illness, condition or injury;
2. The employee has abided by policies regarding the use of leave including contacting the college appropriately, and securing necessary physician statements;
3. The employee has exhausted or is likely to exhaust all paid medical leave accruals due to such illness(es)/conditions(s)/injury(ies), and is not receiving other forms of compensated leave, such as sick, vacation, or personal leave payments, workers’ compensation payments, or long-term disability payments;
4. The extraordinary or severe medical illness, condition or injury has caused, or is likely to cause, the employee to go on leave without pay or to cause termination;
5. The employee has been out of work three days at own cost of sick leave or with financial consequences; has a statement from a physician certifying the medical necessity of the leave.
B. Donating Leave
Washington State Community College employees may donate accrued medical leave to another Employee only if these conditions are met:
1. The Director of Human Resources or designee determines that the employee has sufficient accrued sick leave available to donate.
2. The donation does not cause the sick leave balance of the donating employee to fall below 360 hours.
3. The donation does not involve excess leave that the donor would not be able to otherwise personally use due to retirement, resignation, or termination.
4. The donated leave has been given voluntarily without any coercion, threat, intimidation, or financial inducement.
C. Administrative and accounting procedures and requirements
1. The Director of Human Resources or designee will require the employee to indicate the need for the leave and expected duration of the extraordinary or severe medical illness, condition or injury.
2. The Director of Human Resources or designee will determine the amount of donated leave the employee may receive. The minimum donation to be given and received is 8 hours for an event. The leave received will be designated as donated leave. The donated leave will be deducted from the balance of the donor and applied to the balance of the
recipient after all outlined conditions have been met. The donation is final and will not be reimbursed to the donor once it has been deducted. Donated leave may only be used for the purposes specified in this policy.
3. All forms of paid leaves available for use by the recipient must be exhausted prior to using any donated leave.
4. No leave will be accrued while receiving donated leave.
5. No donated leave can be used once the individual becomes
eligible for paid leave/retirement program such as long term disability, workers’ compensation, or disability retirement.
6. Donated leave will not be transferred or deducted from the leave balances of the donor until all conditions have been met. Donated leave cannot be returned to the donor’s leave balance.
7. The employee receiving donated leave will be paid at their regular rate of pay. One day of donated leave will cover one day of the recipient’s pay without regard to any differences in rate of pay. To clarify: if Employee “A” is being paid $10 per hour and Employee “B” who receives $20 per hour donates one day of leave, Employee “A” will
receive one day of paid leave, not two days.
8. The employee can receive donated leave up to the number of hours that he/she is normally scheduled in that pay period (no overtime or overload).
9. The employee receiving donated leave may receive/use up to 1440 hours of donated leave or to the point of qualifying for disability or their return to work, whichever occurs first.
D. Definitions
1. Close relative of the employee means spouse, dependent (as defined in the Family Medical Leave Act “FMLA”), or parent of the employee.
2. A catastrophic illness, condition or injury is defined as one that is life threatening and requires an extensive period of recovery. Not all illnesses, conditions or injuries that disable an employee from working qualify as catastrophic.
E. The Administration Process
The employee requesting catastrophic leave must contact the Director of Human Resources and provide a letter from a medical physician, appropriately licensed, which sets forth the circumstances that cause the illness, condition or injury to be catastrophic. Not all illnesses or injuries that disable an employee from working qualify as catastrophic.
2. Human Resources verifies employee has no form of accrued leave otherwise available.
3. Employee needing leave completes necessary paperwork.
4. The Office of Human Resources sends an all employee email requesting donations (without specifying the recipient). Leave is accepted for donation on a first come first served basis.
5. Donors respond via email and acknowledge that the donation is voluntary.
6. Human Resources uses the donor’s email response as a release to deduct leave from the donor and transfer to the recipient.
7. Donation hours are only deducted from donor if used. |
