Benefits » Time Off »Catastrophic Paid Leave (CPL) program
The Catastrophic Paid Leave (CPL) program, administered by the Laboratory’s Occupational Medicine Division, allows employees to donate accrued vacation time to a CPL “bank” that can be used by other employees in the event of their own or eligible family members’ unanticipated serious illness or injury. To receive a CPL grant, each case has to be reviewed by the Laboratory’s Health Case Management Committee and strict eligibility requirements must be met.
The CPL bank has an urgent and ongoing need for vacation hour donations (see below). Employees wishing to donate vacation hours to the CPL program need to complete the Request to Donate Vacation Hours (Form 1851) (pdf).
Procedure P730-14, Catastrophic Paid Leave (pdf), provides additional CPL information.
The CPL bank has been empty for most of calendar year 2008. As of July 2008, only two of six CPL applications could be awarded year to date because of insufficient CPL bank hours. At the same time, Occupational Medicine has received numerous telephone inquiries for CPL grants. In view of the bank’s depleted state, many employees in urgent need end up not applying at all.
The following cases are examples of applications which were approved by the Health Case Management Committee in 2008, but for which no actual grants could be awarded because of the bank’s shortage of CPL hours:
Vacation hour donations are accepted in one-hour increments, with a minimum of four hours per donation. Donors may direct up to 50% of their donation to a specific CPL grantee. The remaining percentage of hours will be credited to the CPL bank for employees who may not otherwise receive directed donations. Employees are limited to one donation per month. Sick leave hours cannot be donated. CPL donations are completely anonymous; donors' names will not be released to the recipients.
Employees who would like to apply for a CPL grant must submit a completed Catastrophic Paid Leave: Employee Request (Form 1850) (pdf) to Occupational Medicine for review by the Health Case Management Committee.
The CPL program administers catastrophic paid leave for the following types of emergency situations:
CPL grants cannot be used for bereavement periods or non-medical purposes.
To qualify for a CPL grant, an employee’s absence from work must have been, or is expected to be, at least four consecutive weeks and must have depleted, or will deplete, all vacation and sick accruals during the leave. If eligible for disability benefits, the employee must have submitted an application for disability benefits to the insurance carrier.
All unused CPL hours must be returned to the CPL bank. Misuse of CPL hours is subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.