Catastrophic Leave Donation Program

Catastrophic Leave Donation Program
Practice Directive P413

Effective Date: December 1991
(Rev. September 2003)
Catastrophic Leave Form: [DocuSign]

P413.1 The Catastrophic Leave Donation (CLD) Program allows employees to donate 1 - 40 hours, depending on collective bargaining unit, total each fiscal year of their vacation and/or sick leave credits to other employees who have 1) experienced a catastrophic illness or injury; 2) exhausted their own accrued leave credits including sick leave, vacation and compensating time off (CTO) and 3) are totally incapacitated from work.

SCOPE

P413.2 The Catastrophic Leave Donation program shall apply to all eligible temporary, probationary and permanent non-academic employees including confidential employees and management employees covered by the Management Personnel Plan.

P413.3 Where the provisions of the CLD procedure are in conflict with the collective bargaining agreements reached pursuant to Chapter 12, (commencing with section 3560) of Division 4 of Title I of the Government Code, the collective bargaining agreements shall take precedence.

DEFINITION

P413.4 Catastrophic illness/injury is one that has totally incapacitated the employee from work. Conditions which are short-term in nature (for example: flu, measles, common illnesses, common injuries, etc.) are not deemed catastrophic. Chronic illnesses or injuries which result in intermittent absences from work may be considered catastrophic (for example: cancer, AIDS, major surgery). Generally speaking, such chronic illnesses or injuries must be considered both long term in nature and require long term recuperation periods.

PROVISIONS

P413.5 Catastrophic illness or injury may also include an incapacitated member of the employee's immediate family if this results in the employee being required to take time off for an extended period of time in order to care for the family member and the employee has exhausted both all of his/her accrued vacation credits and all of his/her accrued sick leave credits which may be used for family care in accordance with the appropriate collective bargaining agreement. Only donated vacation credits may be used for such family care catastrophic leave.

P413.6 Donated leave credits may be used to supplement Industrial Disability Leave, Non-Industrial Disability Leave or Temporary Disability payments from the Workers' Compensation Third Party Administrator (TPA), upon the application for these benefit(s) by an eligible employee.

P413.7 The total donated leave credits shall normally not exceed three calendar months calculated from the first day of catastrophic leave. In exceptional cases, an additional three-month period may be approved.

AUTHORIZATION

P413.8 The President has delegated authority to the Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management to review and authorize the use of catastrophic leave.

PROCEDURE

P413.9 To request participation:

P413.10 The employee, the employee's Union representative, the employee's representative or the employee's family member shall submit a request for the employee's participation to the Dean/Director and to the Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management.

P413.11 The request to the Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management shall include a physician's statement indicating that the illness/injury is catastrophic, the extent of disability, and anticipated/projected length of absence.

P413.12 The request to the Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management shall include the name and contact information for the individual designated to run the campaign for donations on behalf of the employee.

P413.13 The Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management shall determine eligibility. The employee shall be counseled by the Benefits Officer regarding the disability options available to him/her.

P413.14 The Leave Accounting & Disability Pay Coordinator in Human Resources shall calculate the amount of catastrophic leave needed and provide this information with solicitation forms to the employee and the individual designated to run the campaign. The Leave Accounting & Disability Pay Coordinator shall maintain an accounting of donations and balances.

P413.15 To Donate leave credits, there are two methods:

P413.16 The CLD Bank: employees may donate leave to a campus Catastrophic Leave Bank by completing CLD Form #413/A and submitting the form to the Human Resources Department. Credits in the Bank shall be distributed to eligible employees upon request and approval. The Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Safety & Risk Management shall initiate a campus-wide campaign for donations to the Bank once each year; however, employees can submit forms at any time.

P413.17 For an individual: employees may donate leave to a specific individual by completing CLD Form #413/A indicating the name of the individual and submitting the form to the Human Resources Department. The School, Department or Union may conduct a solicitation campaign on behalf of an employee by attaching a personal appeal to the CLD Form #413/A and circulating the appeal on campus.

P413.18 The leave shall not be deemed donated until actually transferred by the Human Resources Department. Leave pledged but not used will not be forfeited by the donator. Donated leave shall be used in the order it is donated. Any employee whose donated leave was not transferred to a recipient shall have their CLD form returned to him/her at the end of the fiscal year.