Employee Handbook

Section 6 — Time Away from Work

The City's Employee Leave Transfer Policy establishes conditions, procedures, and guidelines relating to the transfer of employee vacation and personal days to assist other employees in need of an extended absence, beyond normal allowable paid leave, for an extraordinary personal or family emergency situation.  

This policy applies to all employees of the City who accrue vacation or personal days and have completed their Probationary/Introductory Period. All part-time employees receiving donated leave through this program shall be limited to redeeming the leave in amounts not to exceed the regularly scheduled hours the employee normally works per week.  

Employees who want to receive leave from other employees need to complete a Request to Receive Transferred Leave Form to receive transferred leave.  

The leave must require the employee to be away from work for an extraordinary personal or family emergency beyond the employee’s accrued paid leave.

To be eligible to receive a leave donation, an employee must have exhausted all available paid leave and not be currently receiving any other supplemental benefit payment, such as workers’ compensation or long-term disability.

Verification of the need and duration of the leave must be provided. In the case of a medical leave, a doctor’s statement as to the anticipated length of leave is required.  

The request must be recommended for approval by the employee’s department director. All department director recommendations require formal approval by the City Manager.

The request to receive donated leave will be responded to within 10 working days of completion (including verifications if necessary). If approval is granted after leave without pay has been incurred, the transferred leave will be retroactive to cover the start of the unpaid leave period.

Upon receiving the consent of the requesting employee, human resources will post a notice that leave is being requested. The reason for the leave request will not be stated on the posted notice. Employees may request that the notice be reissued a second time, 60 days after the first posting.

Employees will continue to accrue benefits and will continue all benefits while receiving donated leave.

At the end of the absence duration, any remaining transferred leave will be transferred back to the employees who donated it on a prorated basis, rounding to the nearest whole hour.

Employee Leave Request Procedure

Employees who want to donate vacation, comp time (hourly employees only), or personal days to an employee must complete the Request to Donate Vacation/ Personal Leave Form.  

The following guidelines apply:

• Vacation, comp time (hourly employees only), or personal days may only be donated in not less than four-hour increments.

• The completed Transfer request should be sent to Human Resources for consideration by the City Manager.

• An individual employee’s donation for employees that work a traditional 40-hour work week, may not exceed a total of 40 hours per Calendar Year.

• An individual employee's donation for twenty-four hour Fire employees many not exceed a total of 56 hours per calendar year.

• An individual employee's donation for EMS employees assigned to the Pitman schedule may not exceed a total of 42 hours per calendar year.

Death of An Employee

Employees are able to donate their vacation, C-time or personal days to an active employee family upon the death of the employee.

The following guidelines apply:

• Employees must use one benefit “bucket” (and cannot split their time amongst more than one benefit. (For example, if you wish to give 12 hours, all 12 hours must come from your vacation bank. It cannot be split amongst vacation, c-time and/or personal days)).

• The Request to Donate Form must be approved and reach Human Resources by the deadline given in order to make the payroll cut off. Any forms received late will be returned to the employee and the donated time will *not* be given to the family.

• The payment will be made in one lump sum to the beneficiary designed by the employee or their estate.