Voluntary Shared Leave Regulation 628

Regulation 628 Approved: February 17, 2011
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS
Voluntary Shared Leave Regulation
Regulation 628
Source of Authority: North Carolina Office of State Human Resources
UNC Policy Manual §§ 300.1.1 & 300.2.1;
N.C.G.S. § 116-34(a);
UNC Code § 502(A)
Revision Authority: Chancellor
History: First Issued: February 17, 2011
Related Policies and Regulations: Voluntary Shared Leave Policy, OSP Manual § 5, pp. 28-33.1;
UNC Policy Manual §§ 300.1.1 & 300.2.1;
Compensatory Time Regulation 602;
Faculty Reassigned Time Regulation 611;
Medical Leave Regulation 618;
Military Leave Regulation 619;
SAAO-II & Other EHRA Employment Terms & Conditions Policy 625
Responsible Offices: Human Resources Department
Effective Date: February 17, 2011

I. Purpose

This regulation aims to provide for the voluntary sharing of vacation, bonus or sick leave among university employees in the event of serious and prolonged medical conditions that cause an employee to exhaust all available leave. It is not the intent of this regulation to apply to incidental, normal, short-term medical conditions.

II. Scope

This regulation applies to all permanent EHRA and SHRA UNCSA employees in leave-earning status (including probationary employees and trainees to permanent appointments).

III. Definitions

A. “Donor” means the employee who donates leave to another employee.

B. “Immediate Family” means an employee’s Spouse, Parent, Great/Grand Parent, Child, Brother/Sister, and Dependents, as defined by OSP Policy Manual § 5.

C. “Medical Condition” means a medical condition of an employee or an immediate family member that is likely to require an employee’s absence from work for a prolonged period of time.

D. “Prolonged Medical Condition” means a condition which lasts for at least 20 consecutive workdays.

E. “Prolonged Period of Time” means a period of 20 consecutive workdays.

F. “Recipient” means the UNCSA employee (or another state employee) who receives leave.

IV. Regulation

A. Recipient Eligibility. An approved employee may use donated leave to care for the employee’s own or an immediate family member’s prolonged medical condition after all of the employee’s available sick, compensatory time, and vacation/bonus leave has been exhausted. An employee on the Disability Income Plan of North Carolina or on workers’ compensation leave should contact the Human Resources Department for further information regarding eligibility and participation

B. Separate Events. Each approved medical condition is a separate, distinct qualifying event. Therefore, if an employee already approved for the shared leave program for one illness subsequently develops another illness while under the program, the employee must reapply to remain eligible for the program.

C. Voluntary shared leave ends when the recipient returns to work, resigns, retires or dies.

D. The minimum amount of leave an SHRA employee may donate is four hours.

E. EHRA employee must donate time in increments of a day (i.e. eight hours).

F. Leave Transfers in General

1. Any SHRA or EHRA employee in a leave-earning status may donate sick leave, vacation leave, or bonus time to an approved recipient as sick leave.

2. Donated leave in the recipient’s account, if unused, will be returned to donors on a pro-rata basis in the same form as it existed when donated. For example, if a donor donates three hours of vacation time and the recipient does not use the three hours of sick leave, the three hours is credited to the donor’s vacation leave balance.

G. Donation of Sick Leave

1. Employees may donate sick leave to other employees at UNCSA and to immediate family members working at other state agencies.

2. The maximum amount of sick leave an approved employee can receive from employees other than immediate family members is 20 days per year.

3. Donations to Immediate Family Members

a. An employee donating sick leave to a qualified family member under this program may not reduce his or her sick leave account below 40 hours.

b. The maximum amount of sick leave that may be donated is 1,040 hours.

4. For all other donations of sick leave, the maximum donation to any one individual is 5 days of sick leave per year.

H. Donations of Vacation/Bonus Leave

1. Employees may donate vacation and/or bonus leave to an immediate family member or a non-family member who is an employee of any State agency.

2. Employees may donate vacation and/or bonus leave to a UNCSA coworker’s immediate family member who is an employee in a public school or community college.

3. There is no maximum limit on donations of bonus leave that may be donated.

4. The maximum amount of vacation leave that may be donated is limited to an amount that does not reduce the donor’s leave balance below one-half the annual vacation leave accrual rate and is not more than the amount of leave accrued by the donor annually.

I. Prohibitions

1. Shared leave may only be used in connection with prolonged health conditions.

2. Donated sick leave donated may not be used for retirement purposes.

3. A “leave bank” for use by unnamed employees may not be created.

4. A donor may not receive compensation for the leave donated.

5. No employee may coerce another employee or interfere in any way with the donating, receiving, or using leave under this program. Such acts are grounds for disciplinary action up to and including dismissal on the basis of personal conduct.

6. Employees may not personally solicit the donation of leave on their own behalf or on behalf of another employee, under the penalties noted above for interfering. However, an employee may solicit family members on his or her own behalf.

V. Revision History

A. February 17, 2011 – Adopted by Board of Trustees as part of UNCSA Policy Manual


UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

Voluntary Shared Leave Procedures

Procedure 628

I. Application & Approval Procedures

A. The employee who is nominated for, or applies for, shared leave must complete the “Application for Voluntary Shared Leave” form found on the HR website.

1. The applicant must produce/include medical evidence to support the need for leave beyond the available accumulated leave.

2. This form and supporting documentation is forwarded to the Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Human Resources Officer for review and approval.

B. When the request is approved, the management of the program will be handled by the Benefits Representative who will send an e-mail to the UNCSA campus, advising UNCSA employees of the approval of shared leave for the applicant.

1. A copy of the blank donor form will be attached to the email.

2. As donor forms are received, the Records Manager will date stamp them and give the original forms to the Benefits Representative.

a. The original forms will be maintained in the shared leave file; no timesheets, other than those of the recipient, will be in the shared leave file.

b. Employees will not be permitted to use their timesheet as their donor form; they must complete the donor form.

3. As the donor forms are received, the Benefits Representative will enter the donation information into the spreadsheet, listing the donations in the date order received.

4. Donors shall be notified in writing of the State retirement credit consequences of donating sick leave when the benefits manager receives the donor form. .

C. Just prior to the payroll deadline, the Benefits Representative and Records Manager will determine if enough shared leave has been received to keep the recipient in full pay status. If not, the recipient will be notified.

D. The Benefits Representative will continually monitor the situation as it progresses to determine whether or not the employee should apply for short term disability.

E. When the employee returns to work or is no longer in need of shared leave, a final reconciliation will be performed by the Benefits Representative in consultation with the Records Manager.

1. The Benefits Representative will determine which donated hours were used, and which donated hours, if any, were left over (not used).

2. If a donor’s hours were not needed/not used, a letter will be sent to advise the donor of such and will instruct the donor to add the hours back into their accrued balance on their next timesheet.

a. The donor will also be instructed to include a copy of the memo with the timesheet on which the hours were added to their accrued balance.

b. A copy of their donor form will be attached to the memo.

II. Recipient Leave Accounting and Usage If Approved

A. Recipients will be notified in writing by Human Resources of leave amounts that have been donated to their account.

B. Recipients should enter donated leave on the monthly timesheet, attaching a copy of the notification received from Human Resources to the time sheet before submitting to the employee’s supervisor for approval at month-end.

C. Leave transferred under this program will be available for use on a current basis. Leave may be used to cover the initial 20 days of disability.