Department of Human Resources

UMD VACATION DONATION POLICY

Revised 9/20/97
Revised 3/22/07

I. Purpose

The purpose of the Vacation Donation Policy is to permit an employee to donate paid vacation leave to another employee.

This policy permits such a donation to occur when an employee has a need for additional paid leave because they have exhausted all paid leave and have a serious medical hardship or catastrophic illness or injury, such as cancer, major surgery, AIDS, a serious accident, heart attack, etc. that poses a threat to life and/or requires inpatient, hospice or residential health care.

The employee's need may arise from their own serious medical hardship or catastrophic illness or from their need to care for a family member, including a spouse or domestic partner, child, or parent, who has a serious medical hardship or catastrophic illness.

This policy is not intended to cover an employee who is experiencing a normal pregnancy, has a common illness, has an illness or injury covered by an employer-paid long term disability policy or Workers' Compensation, or has incurred an injury during the course of committing a felony.

Similarly, this policy is not intended to provide leave to any employee who has previously abused any paid leave.

II. Employee's Eligibility to Apply for and Receive Vacation Donation:

• must be a UMD non-student, non-academic employee
• must be eligible to accrue vacation leave under the Civil Service Rules, or appropriate collective bargaining agreement or the P/A Handbook
• must have exhausted all forms of paid leave; i.e., vacation, sick, compensatory time, personal holiday (if applicable)
• must have passed their initial probationary period
• suffer from a serious medical hardship or catastrophic illness or injury which requires inpatient, hospice or residential health care.
  
  Employees are ineligible to use this policy during any disciplinary suspensions or if they are receiving, or have applied to receive, Workers' Compensation benefits.

III. Administration

The UMD Department of Human Resources (HR) is responsible for soliciting donations, reviewing applications and making awards. In making decisions, HR will review the employee's application, the department's verification of exhaustion of all paid leave, and all medical evidence submitted by the employee, including but not limited to a Physician's Statement. HR may request additional medical information from the applicant, when needed.

The final decision on the award and distribution of donated leave time rests with HR and will not be subject to any University grievance procedure.

HR will ensure that no decision will be made based on an employee's race, religion, creed, color, sex, national origin, disability, age, marital status, public assistance status, veteran status or sexual
orientation.

IV. Application for Vacation Donation Policy Leave

To initiate a request, an employee must contact their supervisor. In the event that an employee is physically or mentally unable to initiate a request, a request may be initiated by a member of the employee's immediate family; i.e., spouse, domestic partner, child or parent, or by their department. The supervisor will then contact UMD HR for the paperwork.

An employee must complete an application and a release of medical information. An employee may be asked to provide additional medical information.

Employees can apply for up to a maximum of 65 days per year. Any awarded days will be prorated based on the employee's percentage of appointment. An employee can only make an application once every fiscal year.

V. Contributions

A request for contributions will be made when a need arises. Donations are limited to a maximum of 40 hours of paid vacation time per calendar year and must be donated in 8-hour increments. The donated paid time will be calculated on the hourly rate and fringe benefit rate of the employee donating the time.

Department Heads, in discussion with Human Resources and the appropriate vice chancellor may limit the number of donations when donations will result in or create a budget deficit.

Employees who are paid from federally sponsored research funds may not donate vacation but are eligible to receive vacation donations. Costs must be incurred against non-federal accounts. Other non-federal funds may also have similar restrictions. The employee's department will determine if the funding source will allow a donation.

Employees who are prohibited by grant regulations from donating vacation may not donate vacation. They may be eligible to receive vacation donations.

I. STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURES FOR EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYEE'S DEPARTMENT REQUESTING THE USE OF THE VACATION DONATION PROGRAM:

Contact Information: Joan Erickson, jericks1@d.umn.edu, 218-726-6520

Step 1. Employee and/or employee's department discusses eligibility requirements with UMD Department of Human Resources.

Step 2. Employee and employee's department must complete and submit the following documents:

A) Department's Responsibility to submit to UMD Department of Human Resources:

* Application for Use of Vacation Donation Program form - contact Joan Erickson, UMD HR, jericks1@d.umn.edu, 726-6520

* Copy of the employee's most recent vacation/sick leave records indicating that all available sick leave, vacation leave, personal holiday and comp. time have been exhausted.

B) Employee's Responsibility to submit to UMD Department of Human Resources:

* Physician's Statement

Step 3. Forward all documents in I. Step 2 to:

Joan Erickson
UMD Dept of Human Resources
1049 University Drive
255 Darland Administration Building
Duluth MN 55812

Step 4. UMD Department of Human Resources then verifies the information and either accepts or rejects the request and informs the applicant and department.

II. STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURES FOR EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYEE'S DEPARTMENT CONTRIBUTING TO THE VACATION DONATION PROGRAM:

Contact Information: Betsy Behning, behni001@d.umn.edu, 218-726-6740

Step 1. Donor and donor's department complete the Vacation Contribution Form

* Copy of the donor' most recent vacation/sick leave records and indicate the number of vacation days being donated.

* Copy of the donor's distribution document.

* Copy of the employee's distribution document.

* Copy of the Worksheet form in calculating the daily rate of salary and fringe of the donor & recipient.

* Deduct vacation leave from donor's vacation allowance.

* Contact the UMD Department of Human Resources regarding proper documents which may be needed.

Step 2. The recipient's department will work with the UMD Department of Human Resources to:

* Translate the salary rates of the donor and recipient and determine the net effect on the recipient (worksheet attached.)

* Increase vacation allowance for recipient (this will require keeping paper leave records because the computerized version does not allow this type of irregularity.)

* Process PAD and distribution documents reducing "leave without pay" by the net days earned from the donations.

Forward all documents in II. Step 1 to:

Betsy Behning
UMD Dept of Human Resources
255 Darland Administration Building
1049 University Drive
Duluth MN 55812