Section VI - Employment Matters

VI E 9

Leave - Voluntary Shared

To state the College’s voluntary shared leave policies and procedures

There are occurrences brought about by serious and prolonged medical conditions that cause employees to exhaust all available leave and therefore be placed on leave without pay. It is recognized that such an employee forced to go on leave without pay could be without income at the most critical point in their work life. It is also recognized that fellow employees may wish to voluntarily donate some of their vacation leave (includes regular or bonus) or sick leave to provide assistance to a fellow employee. Therefore, it is the policy of this College to provide an employee with the opportunity to help a fellow employee by donating regular or bonus vacation leave.  Such a donation will be done on a one-to-one basis. No banking of leave is permitted.

For the purposes of this policy, a medical condition shall be defined as a medical condition of the employee, immediate family member and other dependents living in the employee's household that is likely to require an employee's absence from duty for a period of at least 20 consecutive workdays and that results in a substantial loss of income to the employee due to limited leave in the employee's leave account.  If an employee has had previous absences for the same condition within the last 12 months, the college may waive the 20 consecutive workday requirement. Immediate family is defined as spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, including step, half, and in-law relationships. It is not the intent of this policy to apply to incidental, normal, short-term medical conditions.

Qualifying as a Recipient: In addition to the aforementioned requirements, in order to qualify as a recipient, the employee must be a permanent full -time employee with a minimum of one year's service time and have exhausted all available leave balances. While using voluntary shared leave, the employee continues to earn leave provided the employee works at least half the work days in a given month; when accounting for leave, this vacation and sick leave will be used first.

Employees in receipt of income from the Worker's Compensation Program, the Disability Income Plan of North Carolina, or disability payments from any other source are ineligible for donations. However, in either of these cases, the employee may participate in shared leave during the required waiting periods.

Applying for Donation: An employee may apply or be nominated by a fellow employee. To apply, an Application to Receive Voluntary Shared Leave should be directed to the Director of Human Resources and include the following information:

  1. Name of employee in need of donated leave
  2. Description of the medical condition and estimated length of time needed in donated leave
  3. Statement of willingness to have need communicated to fellow employees (the nature of the medical condition will be held in the strictest of confidence unless the applicant specifically requests that such information be shared with fellow employees)
  4. A doctor's statement certifying the need
Note that an employee receiving leave donations will also be placed on leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, if applicable. The requirements of this type leave would then apply to recipients.

The maximum amount of donated leave that can be received is 1040 hours or the amount of time projected for treatment and recovery, whichever is less. Leave transferred under this program will be available for use on a current basis or may be retroactive for up to 30 calendar days to substitute for leave without pay.

Donating Leave: The minimum amount of vacation or sick leave that an individual may donate is 4 hours. The maximum amount of vacation leave that can be donated is the amount an individual earns in one year. However, the amount donated shall not reduce the donor’s vacation leave balance below one-half of the annual vacation leave accrual rate.  An employee family member donating sick leave to a qualified immediate family member may donate up to a maximum of 1040 hours but may not reduce the sick leave account below 40 hours.  Bonus leave may be donated without regard to this limitation.

Donations made in excess of the actual need will be returned to the donor on a pro rata basis.

Donor Guidelines: 

  • An employee of a community college may donate vacation leave, bonus leave or sick leave to an immediate family member in any State agency, public school or community college.
  • An employee of a community college may donate vacation or bonus leave to a coworker’s immediate family member who is an employee in a state agency or public school provided the employee and coworker are at the same college.
  • An employee may donate vacation, bonus or sick leave to another employee at a community college in accordance with the provisions of this rule.
  • An employee of a community college may donate up to five days of sick leave to a non-immediate family member of a community college.
  • The combined total of sick leave donated to a recipient from non-immediate family member donors shall not exceed 20 days per year as defined by local college policy.

Donated sick leave shall not be used for retirement purposes.

To donate leave either internally or externally, the donor will need to complete the Application to Donate Voluntary Shared Leave Form (XIII: F X I).

All efforts will be made to keep the names of donors confidential.

 

Adopted: 04/15/1999

Revised: 10/19/2000, 01/16/2003, 10/16/2013, 09/19/2013, 05/31/2017