Guidelines
The Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program permits salary and benefit 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 benefit continuation is achieved through donations of vacation credits 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.
Definitions:
A catastrophic illness or injury is one that incapacitates the employee or a member of the employee's family, household or a domestic partner, and which creates a financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all eligible leave credits. A family member is defined as the employee's spouse/domestic partner, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild; in-laws and step-relatives in these relationships; and other persons residing in the employee's household where there is a personal obligation. Program recipients must meet all of the following criteria to receive donated hours:- Must be a UCSB non-probationary, career employee or an academic employee eligible to accrue and use vacation time.
- Must
have requested donated leave due to catastrophic illness or
injury by submitting the
Leave Request Form (application). - Must have written verification of catastrophic illness/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.
- The illness or injury verified by the licensed medical practitioner is one that is serious and incapacitating.
- If the request for donated vacation leave is due to the catastrophic illness or injury of another person, the person is a member of the employee’s family, household or a domestic partner for whom there is a personal obligation.
- Must have catastrophic leave approved by the employee's department evidenced by the supervisor's signature on the Leave Request Form.
- Must have exhausted all of their own accrued paid leave earned pursuant to the applicable personnel policies covering vacation, sick leave, and compensatory time off.
- Must not be on any other University pay status.
- Must have received no written warnings for excessive absenteeism during the two years immediately preceding the request for catastrophic leave.
- If eligible for disability benefits due to this injury or illness, employee must use Catastrophic Leave donations prior to receiving disability benefits.
- Using
the Leave Donation Form, donors may donate vacation
time only in increments of four (4) hours.
- The maximum amount of (vacation) time credited to a recipient's account shall not exceed his or her regular paid status hours for the affected pay period.
- The recipient may remain anonymous unless he or she decides otherwise. Likewise all donations will be taken anonymously unless the donor decides otherwise.
- All donations must be directed to a specific employee; they will not be banked. Any donation forms received that are designated for "Any eligible employee" will allocated to any open Catastrophic Leave case at the discretion of the HR Program Coordinator.
- The annual maximum donation may be no more than 50% of the donor's annual leave accrual entitlement, or 50% of the donor's vacation balance at the time of the transfer, whichever is less.
- Donations are reflected as a deduction from the leave balance of the donor employee when Human Resources transfers the donation to the recipient. Depending on the individual Catastrophic Leave case, transfers may not occur immediately, could happen weeks or months in the future or not happen at all if a surplus of donations was received. Donations will be used in the order that they are received. The donor will be notified when the transfer occurs; and at that time, he/she should change the vacation leave balance on his/her timecard.
- For the sake of auditable record keeping, accrued vacation hours shall be transferred hour-for-hour, regardless of differing pay scales.
- Donations are not tax deductible.
- Once processed and transferred, donations are irrevocable.
Miscellaneous:
- Participation in the Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program is strictly confidential and voluntary.
- The Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program is not subject to any grievance, administrative review or arbitration procedure as applicable to either donor or recipient employees.
- Administration of the program will be coordinated by the HR Program Coordinator.
- For auditing purposes, a report will be made annually to the Benefits Manager and the Human Resources Director on the use of the program.