Donating PTO Time

I am new to the forum, had this situation come up, and thought I would seek some additional advice. This is my first post.....I hope it works!

We have a situation where one of our employees is on intermittent FMLA leave for her own serious health condition. As part of our process, we do require employees take all of their PTO first before using unpaid leave. Unfortunately, this employee has used a most of her paid leave. Another employee has approached me about donating a majority of her PTO to the employee. In the past, we have NEVER allowed employees to donate PTO to other individuals. Red flags are going off in my head with concern about how we would implement such a policy and make sure we are treating all employees fairly without creating a paperwork nightmare in our HR department. However, we are a smaller company, and have a culture of helping out each other. The idea of donating PTO time is in line with our culture. Do any of you have such a policy? Do employees like it? How well do you think it works? Can you share the details? Is there something I should ensure before implementing? Any feedback that is provided would be appreciated! Thanks!

Comments

  • 5 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Lisa: Welcome to the Forum. This subject has been discussed many times over the years. I suggest you do a search and I'm sure you will find quite a few answers to your question.
  • Lisa, welcome! If you take Irie's good advice, be sure to click on the box that adds the "archived" posts to the search. Also, try searching separately for both "Donation" and "Donating." I just tried it, and several related threads popped up. Good luck with the search. If you have any problems, give me a call at (615) 661-0249, ext. 8068. tk

    Tony Kessler, director of editorial
    M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC



  • Lisa: The only time we allow PTO to be donated is when there is a catastrophic situation...we have had open heart surgery, kidney transplant and a terminal cancer situation.

    We do not allow people to donate PTO to those who have simply "mismanaged" their PTO banks. Employees are advised to keep at least a couple of weeks in their PTO banks for emergencies, but for the most part, they don't listen and use it up...consequently when they get sick and have an emergency, they get upset when they run out of time.

    We also mandate that whoever donates has to keep at least 80 hours in their own banks.
  • We have the same requests from time to time. The problem with them is that it costs the employee nothing and the company everything. By this I mean that the employee will continue to accrue PTO and eventually get back up to the previous level.

    What we have allowed in previous situations is for employees to donate a full or half day of actual pay to the sick employee. the employee signs authorization and we dock the employee the appropriate amount and credit it to the sick employee. We do not believe that this runs afould ot the FLSA as we restrict the donating employee to exempt classes only.
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