[Adopted 4-19-1994]
The purpose of this policy is to set forth guidelines for the administration
of leave donation. This policy covers all departments within the Town of Guilderland.
The intent of the leave donation program is to provide a means to assist
employees who, because of long-term personal illness, have exhausted their
leave benefits and would otherwise be subject to a severe loss of income during
a continuing absence from work. The program is not intended to provide supplemental
income which would result in compensation levels exceeding normal wages for
employees who have other sources of substitute income such as that provided
by disability insurance programs. It may, however, be used to supplement the
town disability program up to the normal wage.
A.
In order to donate vacation credits, employees must meet
the following eligibility criteria: they must have a minimum vacation balance
of at least 10 days after making the donation.
B.
There is no maximum number of days which can be donated
to an individual employee so long as the individual donor has a vacation balance
of at least 10 days after making the donation. The ten-day minimum is based
on the donor employee's individual work schedule. For example, a full-time
thirty-five-hours-per-week employee must have 70 hours of vacation remaining;
a forty-five-hours-per-week employee must have 80 hours of vacation remaining;
a fifty-percent employee whose schedule is normally 18.75 hour per week must
have 37.5 hours remaining. If an employee whose normal workday is seven hours
is donating to a person whose normal day is eight hours, the recipient will
receive a full eight hours. There is also no maximum number of times a donor
may make donations to an eligible recipient.
C.
Donations must be made in full-day (seven- or eight-hour)
units, regardless of the work schedule or percentage of employment of the
donor or the recipient. For example, both the employee on a compressed work
week schedule of four ten-hour days and the fifty-percent employee who works
five four-hour days per week must donate in eight-hour-day units.
D.
The identity of donors may not be disclosed by management.
E.
Employees may not donate vacation credits which would
otherwise have been forfeited. An employee who has submitted his/her resignation
or retirement or who has received notice of termination of employment can
only donate credits for which he/she can receive a lump sum payment upon separation.
For example, the employee with a balance of 40 days who submits his/her resignation
can only donate from the thirty-day balance for which a lump sum payment will
be made. If this employee donates five days, his/her lump sum payment will
be 25 days.
A.
In order to receive donated leave credits, an employee
must meet the following eligibility criteria:
(1)
Be eligible to earn leave credits.
(2)
Have completed at least one cumulative year of town service.
(3)
Be absent due to a nonoccupational personal illness or
disability for which medical documentation satisfactory to management is submitted
as required.
(4)
Have exhausted all leave credits. (Leave credits are
deemed to be exhausted if the employee has a balance of less than the number
of hours in the employee's normal workday.)
(5)
Be expected to continue to be absent for at least two
biweekly periods following exhaustion of leave credits.
(6)
Must not have had any disciplinary actions or unsatisfactory
performance evaluations within the employee's last three years of town employment.
B.
An employee's continuing eligibility to participate in
this program must be reviewed by the personnel office at least every 30 days
and more frequently if appropriate. Current standards as to what constitutes
medical documentation satisfactory to management for purposes of determining
medical disability continue to apply.
C.
In certain cases of intermittent absence in connection
with catastrophic illness, the town may waive the two biweekly payroll period
continuous absence requirement (if, for example, there are treatments necessitating
frequent short-term absences from work). In no event may any exception be
granted to the requirement that all leave credits be exhausted.
An employee in need of donated credits will first be notified by his/her
department head at least two weeks before his/her leave credits are exhausted.
A.
Recipient employees are deemed to be in leave-without-pay
status for attendance and leave purposes while charging donated leave credits.
They do not earn monthly leave accruals or observe holidays, nor do they receive
personal leave or vacation bonus days. In such cases, the anniversary date
changes to the date of return to work. The vacation anniversary date is adjusted
if the period of continuous absence using donated leave/leave without pay
exceeds six continuous months. If such period is less than six months, the
employee retains the same vacation anniversary date and is credited with vacation
bonus days upon return to work (this does not apply to those departments with
bargaining units).
B.
While charging donated credits, the employee continues
to have health insurance premiums, retirement contributions and other payroll
deductions withheld from his or her paycheck so long as the paycheck is in
an amount sufficient to cover these deductions.
C.
Employees using donated leave continue to receive retirement
service credit for days in pay status.
Donations may be solicited by the recipient employee or, on his or her
behalf, by coworkers or by union representatives, if applicable, by submitting
a memorandum through the department head. The department head will in turn
notify other employees of the need by simple memorandum. The employer may
not solicit donations on the employee's behalf. While the employer is expected
to cooperate with those soliciting on an employee's behalf with respect to
responding to inquiries concerning an employee's eligibility to participate
in the program, the employer may not release any medical information.
A.
The town's personnel offices are responsible for reviewing
eligibility of recipient and donor employees. The town should not automatically
assume that an employee wishes to receive leave donations. The employee must
indicate his/her wish to participate in this program to his or her department
head.
B.
Donation forms should be date-stamped upon receipt in
the personnel office. The personnel office should verify donor eligibility
upon receipt and deduct days donated from donors' time records (with the notation
"LDP" for leave donation program).
C.
If the recipient employee is separated from service or
returns to work and no additional absences are anticipated, the town should
return unused days to any donor whose donation was not fully utilized. Notification
of returned credits should be in writing. A form for use by employees who
wish to donate vacation credits will be used (Attachment A[1]). Donation activity should be recorded on the Leave Donation Log
(Attachment B[2]).
