Purpose:
To allow employees who have exhausted all their earned leave to use leave donated by others when the employee will suffer a loss of income because of a medical emergency. The program can help to ease the emotional and financial burdens felt by an employee who is seriously ill or has a family member with a medical emergency and who has exhausted all of his or her annual and sick leave. The program allows coworkers to voluntarily transfer some of their annual leave to the qualifying employee.

OPM Regulation:
Final Rule published in the Federal Register May 22, 1995, 5 CFR Subpart I and J: Interim Rules published in Federal Register dated January 31, 1994. (Prior guidance published in FPM Bulletin 630-57; P.L. 100-566, 31 Oct. 88-extended this program to 31 Oct. 93; FPM Ltr 630-33.)

Eligible Employees:
Employees covered by 5 USC, Chapter 63, Subchapter I. Leave cannot be donated to an individual's supervisor.

Appropriate Use:
Transferred leave should be used for the purposes of the medical emergency. It can be (1) used as though the individual had earned the leave, and/or (2) retroactively substituted for LWOP or advanced Sick or Annual Leave.

Accumulation:
There is no maximum accumulation of donated leave and no restrictions on the amount that may be carried forward from one leave year to the next.

Background:
In 1987, Congress established the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program. At that time, the program was designed to allow Federal employees to transfer Annual and Sick Leave to other employees whose family, or a family member, was suffering from a personal emergency. Two years later, Congress extended the program for 5 years under the provisions of P.L. 100-566. The program was extended until 31 Oct. 93. Under this extension, there was a limit to transfer Annual Leave only and only in those situations involving a medical emergency.

P.L. 103-103, the "Federal Employees Leave Sharing Amendments Act of 1993";, 8 Oct. 93 established a permanent leave sharing program for Federal employees, effective date 5 Feb. 94. Changes to the Test Program include: the requirement by each agency to permit leave transfer even if the agency currently has a leave bank program(s) in place; agency flexibility to operate leave banks and/or discontinue without OPM approval; employee participation in both leave sharing and leave bank programs, if available, for the same medical emergency; less stringent requirements for qualifying to become a leave recipient -- agencies may not consider any advanced leave when determining whether a medical emergency is likely to result in a substantial loss of income, and the number of hours of unpaid absence that constitutes a "substantial loss of income" has been reduced from 80 to 24 hours.; new term "Share Leave Status" instead of "Transferred Leave Status"; permits employee to use any annual & sick leave (as appropriate) earned while in a Shared Leave Status if the medical emergency continues upon exhausting all transferred leave and leave withdrawn from leave bank (the maximum amount of leave that may be accrued by employees while in a Shared Leave Status remains at 40 hours of sick & annual leave for full-time employees and must be credited to separate accounts until the leave recipient exhausts all donated leave or the medical emergency terminates).

Medical Emergency:

A medical emergency is a medical condition of an employee or a family member of the employee that is likely to require an employee's prolonged absence from work and would result in a substantial loss of income because of the unavailability of paid leave.

Substantial Loss of Income:

A substantial loss of income is an absence from duty without available paid leave (excluding any advanced leave) because of a medical emergency when the absence is or is expected to be at least 24 hours in duration (for a full time employee) or at least 30% of the average number of hours of work in the biweekly tour for a part-time employee or an employee with an uncommon tour of duty.

Application to Become a Recipient:
The employee or someone acting on behalf of the employee submits a request to the servicing Personnel Office. Such a request shall identify the name, position title and grade or pay level of the potential leave recipient, the reasons transferred leave is needed, the anticipated duration of the medical emergency and if it is a recurring one, the approximate frequency of the medical emergency. Additionally, the agency may require the employee to submit certification from one or more physicians, or other appropriate experts, with respect to the medical emergency. In making a determination as to whether a medical emergency is likely to result in a substantial loss of income, an agency shall not consider factors other than whether the absence from duty without available paid leave is (or is expected to be) at least 24 hours. The Personnel Office reviews the application and, if approved, forwards the request to the Payroll Office for processing.

Termination of Medical Emergency:
The emergency is terminated when: the recipient's employment is terminated; when the employee notifies the agency that the emergency is over; when the agency notifies the employee that s/he is no longer affected by a medical emergency; or, OPM approves the employee's disability retirement.

It is the agency's responsibility to monitor the status of the medical emergency affecting the leave recipient to ensure that he or she continues to be affected. After the emergency ends, any unused transferred annual leave remaining must be restored to the leave donors.

Recordkeeping:
The Personnel Office maintains records on the number of recipients, amounts of leave, the grade and pay level of the donors and recipients, the number returned to work, retired, etc.

Limitations on Donations of Annual Leave:

In any one leave year a leave donor may donate up to one-half of the amount of annual leave he or she would be entitled to accrue during the leave year in which the donation is made.

However in the case of a leave donor who is projected to have annual leave that would otherwise be lost at the end of the leave year , the maximum amount of annual leave that may be donated is the lessor of -

1. One-half of the amount of annual leave the donor is entitled to accrue during the leave year in which the donation is made; or
2. The number of hours remaining in the leave year (as of the date of the transfer) for which the leave donor is scheduled to work and receive pay. (These limitations may be waived pursuant to agency established criteria.)