Sick leave donation policy to change Oct. 1

Details

In a major change to the UAB Sick Leave Donation Policy, effective Oct. 1 retiring employees will be able to donate up to 80 hours to fellow employees with any documented medical condition that requires official medical leave.

The change, approved by the President’s Cabinet and endorsed by the Fringe Benefits Committee, requires a review of such donations by the UAB Benefits Office and the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS); donations must be done in conjunction with application for retirement or at the end of participation in the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) in order to ensure accurate sick leave credit with the TRS for the retiring employee.

In a related change to the policy, hours donated by retiring employees may be used by active employees who meet the requirements of both the UAB Faculty and Staff Benevolent Fund Employee Emergency Assistance Program (EEAP) and the Sick Leave Donation Policy. For added flexibility for the donor, the hours do not have to be directed to a specific employee at the time the donor retires – instead, they can be contributed to the EEAP.

In other changes to the policy:
• The grade restriction on staff-staff and faculty-staff donations was removed, except in the case of direct reporting situations.
• The language specifying that the policy only applied in cases of “catastrophic illness or injury” situations was replaced by “any documented medical condition that requires an official medical leave.”
• The number of hours donors must maintain for themselves before being eligible to donate was             increased from 80 to 160 hours for full-time employees and 40 to 80 hours for part-time employees.

The policy has also been clarified to state that to be eligible to donate sick leave, employees must have completed their initial probationary period. Further, sick leave donation is not available to supplement on-the-job injury pay, and hours cannot be donated to employees electing to take Intermittent Family Medical Leave.

The full Sick Leave Donation Policy can be found online by going to the Human Resource Management site (from www.uab.edu ) and clicking on the Policy and Procedures Manual link in the left column. Click on Policy 303.