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Columns::October 27, 2003
Private company will assume management of bookstore
NSF grant provides $3.9 million for four years of plant genome research
There’s (almost) no place like home
Undergraduate researchers gain experience with apprenticeships
Campus News
Shared-leave program for UGA employees begins in February
By Larry B. Dendy
ldendy@uga.edu
UGA employees soon will be able to help co-workers who are dealing with a serious, life-threatening illness or injury by donating unused sick leave or annual leave hours.
The university will start a shared-leave program next February that allows employees to voluntarily give unused leave hours to other employees who have exhausted all their own leave and are coping with extremely difficult circumstances.
“This is a program many employees have requested for a number of years, and something the Staff Council has specifically asked for,” says Andy Brantley, associate vice president for human resources. “It’s an opportunity for people to help others in a significant time of need.”
The program does not create a “pool” of hours that anyone can draw from, Brantley says. It is a direct one-to-one transfer of hours based on a specific request from a person who needs the hours and a decision by others to donate hours.
An employee can request up to 160 hours of leave at one time, and can make up to three requests in a calendar year for a maximum of 480 hours. Anyone requesting a transfer of leave hours must have used all their own accrued annual and sick leave and be facing a crisis that will use hours they continue to earn.
Employees wishing to donate hours can do so in increments of eight hours but must retain a combined total of 120 annual and sick leave in their own accounts.
Brantley says that people requesting hours must be dealing with a circumstance that is dire enough to keep them away from work for a long period of time, or that is so serious they can’t delay medical attention. Examples might be advanced or rapidly growing cancers, life-threatening illnesses or infections, severe injuries caused by an accident, or life-threatening conditions resulting from the failure of bodily organs or systems, such as a heart attack.
Their absence from work can be continuous, such as hospitalization following surgery or an accident, or it can be intermittent, such as for chemotherapy or other treatment, Brantley says.
A person seeking shared leave must get a doctor’s certification that his or her condition is serious or life-threatening. The person will then fill out a request form that must be reviewed by a certification committee composed of a faculty member, a staff member and an employee in Human Resources.
If the committee approves the request, the person can contact potential donors, who must fill out a leave-donation form.
Employees will make arrangements for sharing leave primarily through word-of-mouth, Brantley says. For example, employees in a department who know a co-worker needs additional hours could agree among themselves to donate hours, and could ask colleagues in other departments to do the same. Care will be taken to ensure that donations are entirely voluntary and that no one feels pressured, Brantley says.
The shared-leave procedure avoids potential problems of financial liability and accounting that could arise in a pool and gives donors the satisfaction of knowing how their hours are being used, Brantley says.
“It’s a way for people to help their fellow employees in a time of serious need, just as they would want to be helped if they were in the same circumstances,” he says.
Hours can’t be transferred to a donor’s immediate or upper-level supervisor or subordinate. The requirement for retaining 120 hours will be waived if the donor is the spouse, parent or child of the recipient.
Donations are irrevocable, but if the recipient doesn’t use all the donated hours, they will be returned to donors on a first-donated first-returned basis.
Complete details about the shared-leave program will be posted on the Human Resources Web site by Jan. 1.
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