Vacation Good Will

Patty · April 2004

Has anyone ever had an employee offer to give one or more of his vacation days to an employee in a "hardship" situation? We have an employee who will be out on a medical leave for a serious condition for quite some time. His STD is only 13 weeks @ $200/wk. He will be out for months and will utilize all his vacation time and sick time to help fill the gap. He has a family with two small children. Several of his co-workers in have indicated they would like to donate some of their vacation time to him. I don't know if this is even legal, or if there are ramifications to either the giving or receiving employee. Any guidance is appreciated.

HiltonHeadIslandHR · April 2004

Patty, s few places for which I have worked have established "Sick Leave Banks" (SLB). A SLB is an established process where members enroll by giving up a day. Then those members who use up all of their days can apply to a SLB committee for days, with documentation, and the group decides if they are eligible. These procedures have beem reviewed by legal counsel. I would not do it any other way. The other option might be holding a fund raiser or providing a format for staff to donate money. One last idea.... offering short term disability as a voluntary benefit. All of these ideas take you out of the middle of misuse or deciding who gets a benefit and who does not.

Lola815 · April 2004

We had an employee who had to have about three operations in a row and he didn't have enough time off to cover the whole time he was out. About 5 employees privately came to me and asked if they could donate a some of sick hours to this employee. We let them. I never even thought if it was "legal" or not.

Beave · April 2004

Do a search. Last October I posted a similar question regarding trading time/sick days for a terminally ill employee. I received many great responses & insight. It might point you in a direction appropriate to your situation. I developed a policy for the situation & had the county commissioners decide to deal with it on an as-needed basis. I could send a copy of the policy for your reference if you'd like. Good luck.

gimper · May 2004

We are gathering information from others to help us determine whether or not to pursue developing a donation bank.
I would appreciate it if you would email me the policy you drafted.
Thank You.

marc · April 2004

We have a Catastrophic leave policy that allows those in need to anonymously request the leave from our Exec Dir. Upon approval, she notifies staff that a fellow staff member has qualified for the leave and to notify HR of any donations they wish to make. We only allow vacation time to be donated, not sick time. The donation is made at the hourly rate of the donor and converted to the rate of the donee.

While we strive to honor confidentiality and we generally prevent the EE's needing the time from directly asking other EEs for time, the word generally gets out about who it is and what the condition or need is and the donations flow in.

This is a successful policy and has built a bridge for many EEs in need.

Rockie · April 2004

We have allowed individuals to do this in the case of serious illness, injury, surgery, etc. This is done at the donating employee's request to a receiving employee. We don't advertise it or pressure anyone to do this.

Cinderella · April 2004

This sounds like an excellent practice. I really like that the donation is made at the hourly rate of the donor and converted to the rate of the donee. That makes it fair for the employer and employees. Good show!

Vacation Good Will

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