POLICY

It is the policy of the National Cancer Institute at Frederick (NCI-Frederick) to provide an opportunity for the donation of vacation leave to employees who need such leave to avoid the financial hardship of an extended leave of absence related to serious health conditions.

Definitions

"Employee" means full-time or part-time contractor employee.

"Family member" means the following relatives of the employee:

• spouse
• dependent child(ren) (including those that are legally adopted, legally placed in the care of the employee or those over the age of 18 who are incapable of self-care due to mental or physical disability.
• dependent relatives who reside with the employee and are incapable of self-care due to mental or physical disability.
• parent(s)
• live-in partner
• grandparent(s) who reside with the employee

“Family member” does NOT include a sibling or other relative of the employee, unless this person meets one of the definitions noted above.

"Leave donor" means an employee who donates vacation leave to a qualified leave recipient.

"Leave recipient" means a current employee whose request to receive donated vacation leave has been approved.

"Serious Health Condition" means a condition that requires inpatient care or continuing medical treatment by a health care provider.

PROCEDURE

Application to Become a Leave Recipient

An employee who is likely to require an absence from duty for a prolonged period of time resulting in a substantial loss of income due to the unavailability of paid leave may submit a memorandum of request to become a leave recipient. If the employee is not capable of making application, a personal representative may make written application on his/her behalf.

The memorandum will be routed through the employee’s supervisor to the Human Resources representative.

An application may be approved if the absence from work without available paid leave is expected to total at least 80 hours (or, in the case of a part-time employee, the number of hours of work scheduled biweekly).

When the need for donated leave ends, the employee must provide immediate written notification to the contractor Human Resources representative.

Notification of Parties

The turnaround time to process requests is typically less than 10 working days from receipt of the request. The Human Resources representative will provide notification to the leave recipient, the Payroll Department and other NCI-Frederick contractor Human Resources departments.

Transfer of Annual Leave

Management and processing of leave transfers shall be the responsibility of the contractor Human Resources representative.

An employee of any NCI-Frederick contractor interested in donating vacation leave must submit a voluntary written request to the appropriate Human Resources representative. This request should specify the number of hours of accrued vacation leave to be transferred to the leave recipient. A leave donor may not directly transfer vacation leave to his/her supervisor.

Since the transfer of vacation leave donations from one contractor to another involves additional procedures, in such circumstances it shall occur only if donated leave hours from the leave recipient’s fellow employees are insufficient.

Donated vacation leave may be used to substitute retroactively for periods of leave without pay or to reduce negative advanced sick leave balances.

Limitations on Donation of Annual Leave

A leave donor may donate no more than one-half of his/her accrued vacation leave balance.

A leave donor who is projected to have vacation leave that otherwise would be subject to forfeiture at the end of the year may donate no more than the one-half of the potentially forfeited leave.

The above limitations on donation of vacation leave may be waived under unusual circumstances. All waiver decisions will be made by the contractor Human Resources representative on a case-by-case basis and will be documented in writing.

Transfer of Donated Leave from One NCI-Frederick Contractor to Another

In the event that a transfer of donated leave is contemplated between contractors, the Human Resources representative of the donating contractor will provide to the Human Resources representative of the recipient contractor, through the Contracting Officer, the name(s) of the donor(s) and the hours donated. The donating contractor will reduce its accrued vacation fringe benefit account by the amount of leave hours donated times the leave donors’ hourly wage rates. The recipient contractor will increase the leave recipient’s available sick leave by the amount of hours donated. These hours will be paid at the leave recipient’s hourly wage rate.

Restoration of Unused Donated Vacation Leave

Any unused donated vacation leave remaining to the credit of the leave recipient shall be restored to the leave donor(s) by the Human Resources representative unless it was subject to forfeiture at the time of donation. In all cases, restored vacation leave will be rounded to one hour increments.

At the election of the leave donor, unused donated vacation leave may be placed in a pool for the use of future leave recipients.

Special Leave Pool

At the discretion of each contractor, and subject to budget accommodation, employees may be permitted to donate vacation leave into a special leave pool to be used by any qualified recipient. Vacation leave donated to this pool will be subject to the terms of this policy as noted above and will remain on deposit until needed.

RESPONSIBILITY

NCI-Frederick Contractors

Each contractor shall administer this policy and maintain records as required.