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Shared Leave

CONTENTS

UNDERSTAND

The shared leave program allows eligible Washington state employees who accrue leave to request to donate some of their accrued annual leave, sick leave, and/or personal holiday hours to a co-worker or other state employee who will need to take leave without pay or separate from employment for the reasons listed below under "Receiving Shared Leave". A state employees may receive and use a maximum of 261 days of shared leave during their lifetime of state employment.

All requests to donate and receive shared leave are subject to the supervisor's or administrator's approval.

Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool

In addition to donations that one employee may make directly to another employee, eligible employees may request to donate shared leave hours to the state's Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool (USSLP). Eligible state employees who are called to active duty in one of the United States uniformed services may request to receive shared leave from the USSLP.

Receiving Shared Leave

An employee is eligible to receive shared leave if:

Shared Leave Request Forms

Eligible employees complete the appropriate shared leave form to request to receive donated shared leave.

Employees who request leave will be required to provide the appropriate form of certification:

  1. For leave due to a serious health condition: Completed Health Care Provider Certification form (the form is returned to Human Resources, not the employing department).
  2. For leave due to military service: A copy of the military orders.
  3. For Emergency Worker leave: Proof of having volunteered to provide services for governmental agency or a nonprofit organization engaged in humanitarian relief in an area of the United states where a state of emergency has been declared, and proof that a governmental agency or nonprofit organization has accepted the employee's offer of service.

Donating shared leave

Employee donations of shared leave must meet the following requirements specific to the type of leave being donated:

Annual leave
Employees may donate four (4) or more hours, as long as they retain an annual leave balance of at least ten (10) days after the donation is deducted.
Classified employees may not donate any annual leave hours accrued above the 240-hour maximum if they would otherwise not have had sufficient time to use them before their next anniversary date.
Sick leave
Employees may donate four (4) or more hours, as long as they retain a sick leave balance of at least 176 hours after the donation is deducted
Personal Holiday
Employees may donate four (4) or more hours of the personal holiday. Any personal holiday hours not donated must be used at one time within the current calendar year.

Shared Leave Donation Forms

Shared Leave Donation Form (pdf) - Eligible employees complete this form to donate shared leave to another employee.

Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool Donation Form (pdf)- Eligible employees complete this form to donate shared leave to the state's Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool.

Leave Accrual While on Shared Leave

An employee continues to accrue sick leave and annual leave if the employee is not off the payroll for more than ten (10) working days in a month. Timekeepers should apply monthly leave accruals as they are earned before applying shared leave. However, an employee who receives shared leave may retain up to 32 hours of shared leave to use over a four (4) month period, at eight (8) hours per month, specifically for the purpose of retaining insurance benefits.

Returning Unused Shared Leave

Any unused shared leave must be returned at its original value to the shared leave donor(s) when the leave is no longer needed, or will not be needed in the future. Before unused shared leave for illness or injury is returned, the UW must receive a statement from the doctor of the employee who received the shared leave, verifying that the illness or injury is resolved.

Shared leave donated to the Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool is done so irrevocably and is never returned to a donating employee.

Administrative considerations

A shared leave donation is a monetary transfer between budgets; therefore managers should understand how these charges will affect the employing department’s finances. Employee leave donations across departments are really transfers of salary and benefit load from one department’s budget to another. The budget number that is specified on the donation form is charged the dollar value of the hours donated. These budgetary transactions are processed by the shared leave accountant in the Payroll office.

Human Resources calculates the dollar amounts and the Payroll Office prepares the cost transfers.

The posting of salary and benefit transfers will appear on the Transaction Summary of MyFinancial.desktop (Budget Activity Report) as follows:

Grant and Contract Accounting and Internal Audit have determined that shared leave donated as annual, sick leave, or a personal holiday is an allowable cost to grants and contracts.

ACT

Processing Requests to Receive Shared Leave

  1. Employees who meet the eligibility requirements described above, download and complete the appropriate form and submit it to you.
  2. Review the employee's section of the form for accuracy.
  3. Complete the departmental section of the form. If you believe that approval of the shared leave request may not be appropriate, contact your unit's Human Resources Consultant.
  4. After Human Resources has approved a shared leave receipt or donation, you, the employee, and your unit’s timekeeper will receive written notice.
  5. After discussion with your employee, you may solicit shared leave donations on his/her behalf.
  6. When an employee receives an approved shared leave donation approved, it is your responsibility to ensure that employee leave records are adjusted to reflect the receipt and use of shared leave.
  1. Employees who meet the eligibility requirements outlined above and wish to donate shared leave will download and complete the Shared Leave Donation Form for donation to a specific employee, or the Uniformed Services Shared Leave Pool Donation Form and submit the form to you for completion.
  2. Review the form for accuracy and complete the departmental section for the form. The budget number specified on the donation form is charged the dollar amount of the hours donated. If you believe that approval of the donation may not be appropriate, contact your unit's Human Resources Consultant.
  3. Forward the completed donation form to the Human Resources Operations Office that serves your unit.
  4. Following Human Resources approval of the donation request, you, the donating employee, and your unit’s timekeeper will receive written approval of the donation.
  5. It is your responsibility to ensure that employee leave records are adjusted to reflect the donation of shared leave.

Returning to Work

Shared leave ends either when an employee returns to work, separates from employment, or a medical condition improves to the point where it no longer qualifies for shared leave. If the employee’s medical provider recommends a gradual return to work, additional shared leave use may be approved according to the individual situation.

When the receiving employee is able to return to work the employee will need to take the following steps to resume regular work status:

  1. For leave due to a serious illness, submit a healthcare return to work authorization to the Human Resources Operations Office, including medical confirmation that the illness or injury is resolved.
  2. If there are unused hours of shared leave hours remaining, Human Resources will calculate any hours that need to be returned to the donors and notify the department timekeeper(s) of the hours to be reinstated to the donor records.
  3. The timekeeper will make appropriate adjustments to employee work/leave records and payroll.

Unused shared leave hours donated to an individual employee will be returned to the donors on a pro rata basis. If personal holiday hours are returned, they may only be used or re-donated in the calendar year accrued.

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