Shared leave

Adopted by Spokane Public Library Board of Trustees on October 15, 2013.

1. GENERAL

Library employees, or their immediate family members, occasionally suffer from a severe or extraordinary illness or injury necessitating an extended absence from work.  As a result, leave balances may be exhausted.  Often co-workers who have substantial leave balances wish to donate leave to those employees.  The shared leave program is provided as a mechanism to accommodate both groups. 

This policy is divided into the following sections:

SECTION 1 – GENERAL

SECTION 2 – STATEMENT OF POLICY

SECTION 3 – ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SHARED LEAVE

SECTION 4 – ADMINISTRATION

2. POLICY

It is the policy of the Spokane Public Library to allow employees to donate illness leave, vacation time and/or compensatory time to a co-worker who must be absent from work for an extended period of time due to a severe or extraordinary illness, injury or other impairment, or that of an immediate family member; has exhausted all illness leave, vacation leave, compensatory time, and floating holidays, and; will imminently go on leave without pay or terminate library employment.  Absence due to an on-the-job illness or injury is excluded from the provisions of this policy

3. ELIGIBILITY TO RECEIVE SHARED LEAVE

All employees meeting the following criteria are eligible to receive leave under this program:

1. The employee suffers from a severe or extraordinary non-job-related illness, injury, or impairment, which has caused, or is likely to cause, the employee to go on leave without pay or which may cause the employee to be terminated from Library employment, or the employee’s immediate family member suffers from a severe or extraordinary illness or injury and is incapable of caring for him/herself. For the purposes of this policy immediate family includes the employee’s spouse, child, mother, father, or more distant relative if living in the employee’s home.
2. The need for leave is documented by a physician or other qualified health care provider.
3. The employee is not receiving time-loss payments as a result of an on-the-job injury or illness.
4. The employee’s position is one in which vacation and illness leave can be accrued, and the employee is eligible to use both vacation and illness leave accruals.
5. The employee has exhausted all vacation, illness, floating holiday and compensatory leave accruals, or exhaustion of all leave is imminent.
6. The employee has abided by Library policies regarding use of leave. (It is the responsibility of the supervisor to document any abuse.)

An employee qualifying for shared leave may receive donations from any other employee who is eligible to donate leave.  All leave donated under the program will be day-for-day.  No differentiation will be made between the salary level of the donor and the recipient.

An employee receiving the leave-sharing benefit will receive no more than a total of one hundred twenty (120) days (960 hours for a full time employee, prorated for part time employees) of such leave during the course of his or her employment with the Spokane Public Library.

4. ADMINISTRATION

The Library’s Human Resources Manager is responsible for administration of the shared leave policy.