Sample Only

City of Kirkland
Shared Leave Program Policy

Chapter 4
Policy 4-23
Effective Date: July 31, 2000

A. INTRODUCTION

The intent of the shared leave program is to provide employees with the opportunity to request the transfer of a specific amount of accrued vacation to an eligible employee whose leave balance may be depleted by reason of extraordinary or severe illness or injury. Additional information on the Shared Leave Program is included in Kirkland Municipal Code 3.80.092.

B. DEFINITIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

1. For a shared leave recipient, the workday is defined as the employee’s budgeted FTE.
2. A 1.0 FTE employee may receive a maximum of 600 hours of leave donations within 6 months. For recipients whose budgeted FTE is less than 1.0, the 600 hour maximum will be pro-rated by their budgeted FTE amount.
3. Determining maximum allowable hours of shared leave donations: At shared leave incident begin date (i.e., Human Resources Manager approval date), for 1.0 FTE employee, subtract the employee’s vacation and sick leave accruals remaining at that date from 600 hours. KMC 3.80.092(b) (7) defines maximum amount an employee could be on City-paid leave as no more than 75 work days. Pro-rate if employee is less than 1.0 FTE.

C. DONATION OF LEAVE

1. Only accrued, unused vacation leave can be donated.
2. All donated leave must be voluntarily given. No employee shall be coerced, threatened, intimidated, or financially induced into donating vacation leave for the purpose of this program.
3. Any shared leave not used by the recipient during each incident/occurrence will be held in the City-wide residual shared leave pool.
4. Full-time regular employees may donate an amount of vacation time provided that it does not cause their leave balance to fall below 80 hours. This amount is 120 hours for Civil Service employees and is pro-rated by percentage of budgeted FTE working for part-time regular employees. Exceptions are permitted with City Manager’s authorization.
5. Donors must complete a Vacation Leave Transfer Authorization form.
6. A shift firefighter may donate any amount of vacation leave, provided that it does not cause the firefighter’s vacation leave balance to fall below five (5) shifts or one hundred twenty (120) hours. Shift firefighters wishing to donate leave which would cause their leave balance to fall below five (5) shifts or one hundred twenty (120) hours must seek and obtain written permission from the City Manager.

D. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SHARED LEAVE

The requesting employee must receive approval by the Human Resources Manager or designee of his or her eligibility for the Shared Leave Program before taking any steps to seek donations from fellow employees. To be eligible to receive shared leave, all the following conditions must apply:

1. Prior to applying for shared leave, the employee must have exhausted, or will shortly exhaust, his/her sick leave and vacation leave, management leave and any accumulated comp-time.
2. The employee must submit documentation from a licensed physician or health care practitioner verifying the employee suffers from, or has immediate family or a household member suffering from, an extraordinary or severe illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition.
3. The employee’s job is one in which annual and/or sick leave can be used and accrued.
4. The employee is not eligible for time loss compensation under RCW 51.32.
5. The employee has abided by City policies and procedures regarding the use of sick leave.
6. The condition has caused or is likely to cause the employee to go on leave without pay or terminate City employment where such termination would be due solely to the exhaustion of the employee’s own accrued leave hours.
7. An employee may not receive donated vacation leave beyond that which can be used in combination with the employee’s unexhausted leave to equal more than 600 work hours.

E. APPLICATION TO RECEIVE SHARED LEAVE

1. Contact Human Resources for complete information on the program and to receive the Application to Receive Shared Leave form. The HR analyst will determine initiation date, leave amount, and monitor donation maximums.
2. The application must be accompanied by documentation from a licensed physician or other authorized health care provider verifying the severe or extraordinary nature of the illness/injury. The employee returns the completed form and attachments to the assigned HR analyst, who files the attached medical form in the confidential medical files and forwards the form to department timekeeper or supervisor.
3. The Department Director and Human Resources Manager or his/her designee’s approval date will activate the leave request form. Based upon the information provided in the application and the physician’s documentation, the Human Resources Manager or his/her designee will approve/disapprove the use of shared leave for the applicant.
4. Once the Department Director's and Human Resources Manager's approvals are obtained, the timekeeper forwards 1) the original application to the HR analyst coordinating the leave and 2) a copy to Payroll.
5. The assigned HR analyst will send a global email to notify the organization of the employee’s need for shared leave.

F. VACATION LEAVE TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION FORM

1. The supervisor or timekeeper will provide Vacation Leave Transfer Authorization forms to their respective department employees who want to donate vacation hours.
2. Timekeepers will initiate a Personnel Action Form for their respective department employees, following this sample verbiage:

   Vacation leave donation for [name of receiving employee] of ___ hours.
   ____ hours X [hourly rate of donating employee] = $[dollar amount].
   

The PAF should also show the donating employee’s accrual minus donated hours.

3. Timekeepers will attach the Vacation Leave Transfer Authorization form to the PAF and keep a copy of the authorization form for department timekeeping records. Timekeepers will forward the original PAF to the assigned HR analyst who completes the form by adding and converting hourly wages, signing it to verify employee receiving leave has not reached 600 hours, and routing it to Payroll with the attached authorization form.
4. Payroll will process the PAFs as they are received and update shared Human Resources/Payroll spreadsheet.
5. Once beginning and end dates, and maximum donation amount have been established by HR analyst, it is the department timekeeper’s responsibility to monitor the employee’s shared leave hours.

G. VALUE OF SHARED LEAVE

1. All vacation leave hours donated will be converted to a dollar value based on the donor’s straight time hourly rate at the time of donation. Such dollar value will then be divided by the receiving employee’s hourly rate at the time of donation to determine the actual number of hours received.
2. The value of any leave transferred under this procedure which remains unused will be put in the City-wide shared leave pool.
3. This residual shared leave pool may be accessed by any employee eligible to receive shared leave on an as-needed basis.

List of MAC Group Positions Covered by Comp Time Policy

Planning Department
Executive Assistant I (Non-Exempt)
Administrative Services Department
Human Resources Assistant (Non-Exempt)
Executive Assistant II (Non-Exempt)
City Attorney's Office
Legal Assistant (Non-Exempt)
Legal Support Assistant (Non-Exempt)
City Manager's Office
Executive Assistant II (Non-Exempt)
Administrative Associate (Non-Exempt)
Finance Department no covered positions
Fire/Building Department no covered positions
Park & Community Services Department no covered positions
Public Works Department no covered positions
Police Department no covered positions