Donating PTO Time
Lisa In Iowa
67 Posts
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!
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
Tony Kessler, director of editorial
M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC
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.
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.