Policy 5221      
LEAVE SHARING

I.          PURPOSE

It is the University’s objective to allow classified employees to participate in a leave-sharing program.  This policy permits eligible employees in Leave Without Pay status who may need additional leave as a result of a serious, life-threatening illness or injury to receive income by using annual leave hours donated to them by other employees.  University management has sole discretion to grant leave sharing on a case-by-case basis to ensure efficient agency business operations.

II.        APPLICABILITY

This policy applies to full-time and part-time salaried, classified employees.

III.       POLICY

A.     Traditional Sick Leave Program

1.       Employees covered by the Department of Human Resource Management’s Traditional Sick Leave policy (Policy 4.55, Sick Leave (“Traditional” Sick Leave) may request donated annual leave as described in this policy if the employee experiences leave without pay due to a serious, life-threatening personal illness or injury.

2.      Virginia Sickness and Disability Program:  Employees who participate in the Virginia Sickness and Disability Program receive program benefits for personal injury or illness and, therefore, are not eligible for leave donations for these reasons.

B.     Additional Information

1.      The maximum number of donated leave hours that may be received by an employee under this policy is 200 hours. Also, the period for which donated leave share hours may be utilized may not exceed the amount of leave that has been determined to be qualified under Family and Medical Leave. Employees must have been employed by Longwood University a minimum of 12 consecutive months or for a minimum of 1,664 hours, whichever is greater.  Employees may not be in a probationary employment status.

2.      The benefit of being a recipient of leave sharing donations is at management’s discretion and will only be granted when it does not jeopardize the efficient operation of the University.

3.      Donations to recipients shall be in the form of annual leave only.

4.      Before being eligible to receive continued pay through the Leave Sharing program, an employee must have exhausted all personal leave balances (such as annual, traditional sick, compensatory, and overtime).  Also, the employee must serve a waiting period of 80 consecutive hours [ten (10) consecutive workdays] in a designated leave without pay (LWOP) status per medical condition before being eligible to receive leave share donations.

C.     LWOP Status

1.      Recipients of leave share donations are not eligible to receive pay for holidays.  Additionally, they may not receive any salary increases until they return to a pay status. 

2.      An employee’s leave anniversary date is affected by periods of leave without pay.

3.      While an employee is receiving leave share donations for personal illness or injury, the University will continue to pay its portion of the health care premium for up to 12 months.

4.      Periods of leave share are not considered creditable compensation for retirement calculations by the Virginia Retirement System (VRS).  Therefore, contributions to VRS will be discontinued when an employee is receiving leave share donations.

5.      Certain payroll deductions may continue while an employee is receiving leave share donations if the employee receives income replacement sufficient to cover the deductions.  Among these are health care premiums and other voluntary deductions.  If the income replacement received through leave share donations is insufficient to cover such deductions, the employee must make arrangements with the University to continue or cancel the deductions.  However, employees who are under contract to purchase VRS service credit may not have this deducted from their leave share checks and must make arrangements with VRS to continue their payments.

6.      Employees receiving leave share donations continue to be covered under the Commonwealth’s group life insurance policy.

D.    Exclusions:

1.      For Employees Covered by Traditional Sick Leave - Medical conditions of the employee will be excluded from eligibility for leave sharing benefits if they result from:

a.       any occupational-related accident or illness for the period for which Workers' Compensation (WC) benefits have been awarded or could have been awarded, if the employee had cooperated with WC Program requirements;

b.      intentionally self-inflicted injuries, except as a result of conditions that qualify under ADA; or

c.       injuries occurring in the course of violating a law.

E.     Reimbursement Required - Recipients shall be required to reimburse the University for pay received for donated annual leave hours when either of the following situations occurs:

1.      when an employee receives compensation through the leave sharing program and, subsequently, receives retroactive workers' compensation benefits for that same period of time; or

2.      when the employee's agency determines that abuse has occurred.

3.      If recipients reimburse the University in situations described above, leave hours will be returned to the original donor(s) according to University guidelines.

F.      Penalties for Abuse

1.      If abuse is verified, the recipient will be required to repay the cost of all donated leave at the salary rate in effect at the time the employee was placed on leave without pay. Additionally, the employee may be disciplined in accordance with provisions of the Department of Human Resource Management's Standards of Conduct policy Policy 1.60, Standards of Conduct.

IV. PROCEDURE

Leave Share request procedure for employees (http://www.longwood.edu/HR/Leave_Share_Procedures.doc).

Revised and approved by the Board of Visitors, September 7, 2002.

Revised and approved by the Board of Visitors, June 12, 2009.

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