Washington State University
BUSINESS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL

PERSONNEL
60.58
New 6-06
Human Resource Services
335-4521

Shared Leave

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SHARED LEAVE

The shared leave program allows faculty, administrative professional, and civil service employees to donate leave to other employees who:

A state of emergency has been declared anywhere within the United States by the federal or any state government, and

The recipient employee has the needed skills to assist in responding to the emergency or its aftermath.

Definitions

An extraordinary or severe illness or injury is defined as a serious or extreme and/or life-threatening injury or illness which prevents an employee from working for at least five working days.

Examples of such conditions include: advanced or rapidly growing cancers; acute life-threatening illnesses; chronic life-threatening conditions in need of immediate care; severe injuries arising from automobile or other serious accidents; and severe or life-threatening condition involving failure of bodily organs or systems (e.g., heart attack, stroke).

Refer to WAC 357-31-395 regarding other definitions which are applicable to the shared leave program.

Citations

WAC 357-31-380, WAC 357-31-390, and RCW 41.04.650.

Collective Bargaining Unit Employees

Collective bargaining unit employees refer to the applicable bargaining unit agreements regarding shared leave rules and procedures.

Receiving Shared Leave

Eligibility

A WSU employee is eligible to request participation in the shared leave program when the employee is entitled to accrue sick leave or vacation leave. (WAC 357-31-395(1))

The following individuals are not eligible to receive shared leave:

NOTE: If the workers' compensation claim is denied, the employee may apply for shared leave.

Use of Shared Leave

The recipient employee uses the donated leave as if it were his or her own, and is not required to repay the value of the leave that he or she uses. (WAC 357-31-450)

An employee using shared leave continues to receive the same treatment in respect to salary and employee benefits as the employee normally receives if using his or her own leave. (WAC 357-31-440)

A probationary or trial service employee who uses shared leave has his or her probationary period or trial service period extended by the number of calendar days he or she is on shared leave. (WAC 357-31-440)

Criteria

The employee must first use all compensatory time, personal holiday, sick leave, and annual leave before using shared leave. An employee called to military duty must first use her or his personal holiday, annual leave, and military leave balances before he or she is eligible to use shared leave. An employee on emergency volunteer service must first use her or his personal holiday and accrued annual leave. (WAC 357-31-390, WAC 357-31-435)

Donated leave can be used only for the purposes of an approved shared leave claim. (WAC 357-31-415)

Employee Condition

An employee is granted shared leave for her or his own condition for up to 90 calendar days or 522 hours per condition or occurrence for a full-time employee, or for the period consistent with her or his long-term disability waiting period, whichever is shorter. The long-term disability waiting period starts as of the first day the employee's health care provider certifies that the employee is unable to work.

NOTE: The maximum number of hours of shared leave received per condition is based on the employee's FTE (Full-Time Equivalent). A full-time employee receives a maximum of 522 hours per condition. A part-time employee receives a maximum number of hours prorated according to the employee's FTE percentage.

Relative or Household Member Condition

An employee may be granted shared leave to care for a relative or household member for up to 90 calendar days or 522 hours (for a full-time employee) per condition or occurrence.

Exceptions

Employees may request exceptions to the maximum periods of shared leave described above. The Director of Human Resource Services reviews exception requests on a case-by-case basis. However, under no circumstances may an employee receive more than 261 days of shared leave over his or her entire career of state employment. (WAC 357-31-400)

Alternatives to Shared Leave

WSU encourages and pursues other methods of reasonably accommodating the employee's needs, such as modified duty, modified hours, flex-time, or special assignments in lieu of shared leave.

Long-Term Disability

Employees have the option of purchasing optional long-term disability (LTD) insurance through Human Resource Services (HRS), with waiting periods ranging from 30 to 360 calendar days. If an employee applies for shared leave and is found to be eligible, shared leave is only to be applied to cover the employee's chosen optional waiting period or up to a maximum of 90 calendar days or 522 hours for a full-time employee, whichever is shorter.

NOTE: The number of hours of shared leave received per condition is based on the employee's FTE (Full-Time Equivalent). A full-time employee receives a maximum of 522 hours per condition. A part-time employee receives a maximum number of hours prorated according to the employee's FTE percentage.

HRS reviews exceptions on a case by case basis.

NOTE: An employee may be granted shared leave to care for a relative or household member for up to 90 calendar days or 522 hours (for a full-time employee) per condition or occurrence, regardless of LTD waiting period.

Application for Shared Leave

To request approval to receive shared leave hours, an employee submits all of the following documentation to HRS:

To obtain the form, contact HRS, or go to:

http://www.hrs.wsu.edu/

Select Manager's Toolkit, then
Select Medical Leave Information.

A licensed physician or health care practitioner must complete the medical leave certification form verifying the severe or extraordinary nature and expected duration of the condition.

To obtain the medical leave certification form, contact HRS, or go to:

http://www.hrs.wsu.edu

Select Manager's Toolkit, then
Select Medical Leave Information.

If the employee is incapacitated, an employee's representative may complete the documentation.

Human Resource Services maintains the Time/Leave Report for the employee during the time he or she is receiving or using shared leave, in compliance with WAC 357-31-430 and WAC 357-31-455.

Review and Approval Process

The shared leave request is reviewed by an HRS manager to determine eligibility.

HRS may contact the employee's supervisor, dean, or area director to determine if other alternatives can be pursued to accommodate the employee in lieu of the use of shared leave.

Redetermination

To request a redetermination of a denied shared leave request or to request an extension due to exceptional circumstances, the employee submits a written statement to the Director, Human Resource Services, French Administration 139, mail code 1014.

A redetermination of a denied shared leave request must be submitted no later than 30 days after the denial. HRS must receive a request for extension within 30 days after initial shared leave is exhausted.

Donating Leave

WSU employees who accrue annual leave, sick leave, or personal holidays may donate a minimum of one hour to an approved shared leave recipient. (WAC 357-31-425)

All donations of leave must be to a specific person in a specific agency. See also below.

Refer to WAC 357-31-425 regarding the terms for donating annual and sick leave, and personal holidays. HRS reviews submitted donation forms to ensure that the donations are within compliance of this WAC.

Employees may not donate annual leave hours that would otherwise be lost on the next anniversary date due to exceeding maximum leave accruals.

Donation Request

The donor employee submits a completed Donation of Shared Leave Hours form to HRS, along with a copy of her or his most recent Time/Leave Report. Print the master on 60.58.9 to obtain copies of the Donation of Shared Leave Hours form.

After donating, the employee receives notice from Human Resource Services. Once the notification is received, donated hours are deducted from the Time/Leave Report.

Funding Source

Donor Employees

Employees may donate leave hours within WSU regardless of the salary funding source.

When an employee supported by a sponsored project makes a leave donation, the project gains the hours the employee would have otherwise taken for leave.

Recipient Employees

An employee whose salary expenses are supported by a sponsored project must have the expenses reassigned to a nonsponsored fund in order to receive shared leave. An employee whose salary expenses are assigned to a nonsponsored project maintains the current funding source.

Prepare either a Position Action/PRR (see 58.02) or an Expense Assignment Action (see 58.03) to change an employee funding source.

Shared Leave Transfer Between State Agencies or Institutions

WSU transfers shared leave to and receives shared leave from other state of Washington agencies or institutions with the approval of both employers, in accordance with WAC 357-31-410.

When shared leave is transferred, equivalent funding is also transferred from the donor's department, except when the donor employee's salary is funded by a sponsored project.

Employees Supported by Sponsored Projects

An employee whose salary expenses are supported by a sponsored project may only donate shared leave to another WSU employee.

An employee whose salary expenses are supported by a sponsored project may receive shared leave from employees of other state of Washington agencies or institutions. The employee's funding source must be changed to a nonsponsored fund in order to receive the shared leave.

Prepare either a Position Action/PRR (see 58.02) or an Expense Assignment Action (see 58.03) to change an employee funding source.

Converting Hours

HRS converts the donor employee's hours to a monetary value based upon the donor's current salary. (WAC 357-31-430)

The equivalent of the recipient employee's salary is the basis for determining the number of hours of shared leave actually received. (WAC 357-31-420)

Returning Hours

If the recipient employee does not use the shared leave hours, unused hours are returned to the donor employee's accrual balances. The hours are proportionately returned to the appropriate type of leave accrual, i.e., annual leave, sick leave, personal holiday. If there are multiple donors, the unused hours are returned to the donors on a prorated basis. (WAC 357-31-445)

Human Resource Services sends a memorandum to the donor and the donor's department when returning unused donated hours.

UNIFORMED SERVICE SHARED LEAVE POOL

The state of Washington created the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool to enable state employees who are called to service in the uniformed services to maintain levels of compensation and employee benefits consistent with the amount the employees would have received in active state service. The pool was also created to allow general government and higher education employees to voluntarily donate leave to be used by any eligible employee who has been called to service in the uniform services in accordance with WAC 357-31-640 through -725.

The Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool is administered by the Washington Military Department in consultation with the Department of Personnel and the Office of Financial Management. (WAC 357-31-645)

Eligibility to Receive

An employee is eligible to receive shared leave from the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool for an unlimited period of time if the employee's monthly military salary is less than the employee's monthly state salary, as defined in WAC 357-31-650.

If the employee's monthly military salary is greater than the employee's monthly state salary, the employee may still receive leave through the general shared leave program for up to 90 days.

Regardless of the employee's state and military salaries, up to eight hours per month may be used from the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool for the purpose of continuing the employee's medical benefits.

Donating Leave

An employee who is eligible to donate leave under WAC 357-31-685 may donate leave to the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool in accordance with WAC 357-31-425.

Contact Human Resource Service regarding leave donations to the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool.

Donating Leave to a Specific Employee

Employees may not direct leave donated to the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool to a specific individual. (WAC 357-31-680)

Employees may donate leave to specific employees through the general shared leave program. See above.

Use of Pool Leave

An employee who has been called to service in the uniformed services and is eligible for shared leave under RCW 41.04.665 may request shared leave from the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool.

Employees must withdraw leave donated to the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool in accordance with procedures established by the Washington Military Department. For more information regarding these procedures, see the Military Department's Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool (USSLP) website at:

http://mil.wa.gov/usslp.shtml

Contact Human Resource Services to request shared leave from the pool; telephone 335-4521.

Abuse of the Pool

HRS investigates any alleged abuse of the Uniformed Service Shared Leave Pool. If HRS finds wrongdoing, the employee may be required to repay all of the shared leave received from the pool.

See the PDF form:
60.58.9: Donation of Shared Leave
Complete and/or print as needed