UCSB HR: Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program

UCSB Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program
Administrative Procedures

Purpose of the Program:

The Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program permits salary and benefits continuation for employees who have exhausted or will soon exhaust all of their own accrued paid leave due to their own serious illness or injury or due to the need to care for a seriously ill member of the employee's family or household. Subject to the stated eligibility requirements, the employee's salary and benefits continuation is achieved through donations of accrued vacation hours from the employee's colleagues.

If the employee is eligible to apply for disability benefits due to this illness or injury, Catastrophic Leave donations must be used prior to receiving any disability benefits.

Application Procedure:

Inquiries concerning the Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program are referred to the Human Resources (HR) Program Coordinator. Employees interested in applying should be referred to the guidelines on the HR website, or they can request a copy of the information from the HR Program Coordinator. It is important that employees and departments have a complete understanding of the program.
Applications are reviewed by the HR Program Coordinator. Applications must be complete and contain timely information. An application will not be accepted if the date that the application is received in Human Resources is more than thirty days past the date when the employee exhausted all paid leave. Applications consist of:
- The Leave Request Form;
- Written verification of the catastrophic illness or injury from a licensed medical practitioner. Doctor’s note must contain: detailed diagnosis of illness/injury, date that illness/injury first occurred, and expected return to work date. Medical information is held in a confidential file separate from any other employee files; and
- An e-mail from the applicant’s supervisor verifying that the applicant has no written warnings for excessive absenteeism in the last two years.
The Program Coordinator determines the employee’s eligibility to receive donated vacation leave by using the following checklist:
- Employee is a non-probationary career employee eligible to accrue and use vacation.
- The illness or injury verified by the licensed medical practitioner is one that is serious and incapacitating.
- Employee has not received written warnings for excessive absenteeism during the two years immediately preceding the request for catastrophic leave.
- Employee has or is expected to soon exhaust all of their own accrued sick leave, vacation and compensatory time.
The approval or denial of the application will be communicated in writing (e-mail or letter) to the applicant or the department if the department is acting on behalf of the employee. If the department is acting for the applicant, the department must forward the approval or denial decision to the applicant. Departments of approved applicants for catastrophic leave will designate a person to be the point of contact for the HR Program Coordinator for the duration of the catastrophic leave case.

Donation Procedures:

Formal solicitations for donations of vacation hours will begin after approval of the application. Leave Donation Forms should not be submitted with the Leave Request Form. Departments are responsible for sending out the solicitation for donations. Departments may create their own solicitation message or modify a model letter that is available from the HR Program Coordinator . If there are not enough donors within the department, the department will widen the search to related departments within the division. If donations fall short of the anticipated need, the department will notify the recipient that he/she will be placed on leave without pay when the donated leave is exhausted.
The Leave Donation Forms that result from departmental solicitations should be sent to the contact person in the department. The forms should be kept in the order that they are received because that is the order they will be used. The contact person forwards the Leave Donation Forms to the Program Coordinator. The identity of donors is to remain confidential.
An employee on Catastrophic Leave should be designated immediately as a FMLA case.
Please update PPS to reflect the employee's leave status. Catastrophic Leave, in and of itself, is NOT a leave designation for PPS purposes.
After the period of 24 weeks, if the employee is still on Catastrophic Leave, the leave of absences code must be changed to another type. Generally this will be:
- 05: Extended Illness
- 08: Personal
The employee on CLS program must use his/her monthly accruals of vacation & sick time before using CLS donations.
Employee's timecard should reflect that Catastrophic Leave donations were received. There needs to be a space created for this on the timesheet. Also, make sure that the same number of donation hours are subtracted from the employee's vacation balance on the timesheet and in PPS.
Near the end of each pay period, the contact person in the department informs the HR Program Coordinator of the number of hours that need to be transferred for that pay period. E-mail or memo is required to ensure that there is a written record of the information. The objective of the program is to maintain uninterrupted pay and benefits for the recipient, thereby delaying leave-without-pay status. With that objective in mind, departments should be in close consultation with the HR Program Coordinator concerning the number of donated hours available for a particular pay period. Recipients should be paid on the normal monthly payroll cycle whenever possible. This means that departments will be paying the recipient based on the number of donated hours that will be transferred shortly after the pay period ends (see next paragraph).
During the first part of each month following the end of a pay period, Human Resources uses the leave reporting system to transfer donated vacation hours to the recipient. PAN notices are automatically sent to the person designated as a reviewer in each donor’s and recipient’s department. A copy of this notice will be sent to those individuals in the donors’ departments who are responsible for timecards. Documentation of the transfer will also be sent to the recipient’s department to the person coordinating the catastrophic leave process. The donor is also notified by the HR Program Coordinator that the transfer has occurred.

Closing the Case:

With the return to work, the recipient is no longer eligible for the Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program. Donors whose donations were not used are notified by the HR Program Coordinator. The recipient is also notified by letter from the HR Program Coordinator that the eligibility for catastrophic leave has ended with the return to pay status. If another catastrophic leave situation occurs after an employee loses eligibility, a new application must be submitted.

If the recipient does not have enough donated leave to cover a full pay period, he/she will be placed on leave without pay by his/her department; and the case will be closed. The recipient will be notified in writing that the case is closed with a copy sent to the department.