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Administrative policy regarding paid leave donation

  1. Policy statement.The university recognizes that employees may have a family medical emergency for which they may need to take time away from work once they have exhausted all of their paid time. To help alleviate the stress caused by such medical emergencies, the university will allow eligible employees to receive donated sick leave or vacation directly from coworkers under this policy.
  2. Definitions. 
    1. A “medical emergency” under this policy is a serious medical hardship or catastrophic illnesses or injury that severely impacts the health of the employee that is expected to cause a prolonged absence from work for which the employee has insufficient paid leave.
    2. A “prolonged absence” under this policy is a continued absence that totals at least more than one pay period or an equivalent number of working hours (e.g., eight ten-hour days). 
  3. Eligibility to receive donated leave. All full- and part-time classified and unclassified employees are eligible to receive donated leave or donated vacation when they experience a medical emergency, as so long as they:
    1. Have exhausted all accrued sick leave, vacation, and compensatory time available at the time of donation; 
    2. Are ineligible to use any paid leave the university provides (e.g., paid parental paid, etc.) to cover the medical emergency; 
    3. Are on an approved leave;
    4. Have completed at least one year of service; and 
    5. Have no record of disciplinary action related to the abuse of leave time or absenteeism on record prior to the need for donated leave
  4. Requesting donations. Eligible employees may apply to receive donated sick leave or vacation using the following procedure:
    1. Eligible employees may only receive and use up to a combined maximum of sixty days of donated sick leave or vacation per calendar year. 
    2. To request leave under this policy, the employee must submit a Paid Leave Donation Request Form to the benefits department to show their willingness to accept paid leave donations.  All such requests will be kept confidential. 
    3. By completing their Paid Leave Donation Request Form , the employee is giving the university permission to disclose the employee’s name on its list of employees who are eligible to receive paid leave donations.
    4. At the time of their request, the employee must reasonably expect that they will eventually be fit to return to work based on their health care provider’s assessment of their serious health condition.
  5. Review process.
    1. The reason for the request to receive donated leave will be kept confidential. 
    2. At any point during the approval process or throughout the course of the leave, the university may require an employee to provide medical documentation of the serious health condition. The university may also  require employees at any point to undergo a medical evaluation, at the university’s expense, conducted by a licensed medical provider of the university’s choosing.
    3. Should the employee’s request for donated leave be denied, the employee may appeal in writing such decision within ten (10) business days to the vice president of the division of people, culture, and belonging, whose determination upon review shall be final.  
  6. Donating paid leave to another employee.  
    1. Donating employees must be currently active on ֱ State University’s payroll at the time the employee submits the request to donate leave.
    2. Employees may voluntarily donate a portion of their accrued hours of sick leave or vacation directly to another employee whose name appears on the university’s list of employees who are eligible to receive donated leave. 
    3. Donating employees must have an accrued balance of greater than thirty days (two hundred forty hours). Employees may donate no more than eighty of their accrued sick leave above two hundred forty hours in any twelve-month period.
    4. An employee may contribute a maximum of eighty hours of earned vacation leave in any twelve-month period.
  7. Use of donated leave.
    1. If an employee is unable to return to work by the originally approved date, they may request additional paid leave via the same approval process as their initial application. Any additional leave the employe receives cannot exceed the 60-day maximum. 
    2. Donated paid leave may only be used for the specific medical emergency that was approved by the university. If an employee still has donated sick leave or vacation time leftover upon their return to work or upon their separation from employment, such leftover leave will be returned to the donor employee. 
    3. Nothing in this policy will be construed to limit or extend the maximum allowable absence under any approved leave (e.g., Family and Medical Leave Act, etc.). 
Policy Effective Date:
Aug 30, 2025
Policy Prior Effective Dates: 
9/1/2003, 6/1/2007, 10/9/2009, 03/01/2015
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