New Article 19.24 Catastrophic Leave Donation Program

Any CSAU employee who accrues vacaton or sick leave credits may voluntarily donate either of those credits to any other CSU employee on the same campus if the recepient employee has exhausted all accrued leave credits, i.e., sick leave, vacation, and CTO dues to catastrophic illness or injury , or whose principle place of residence has been impacted by a natural disaster/state of emergency. Catastrophic illness or injury is an illness or injury that has totally incapacitated the employee from work.

(1) Catastrophic Illness or Injury:

1. An employee, his/her representative or the employee's family member must request the employee's participation and provide appropriate verification of illness or injury as determined by the campus President. The President shall then determine the employee's eligibility to receive donations based pon the definition provided above.
2. An incapacitated employee may elect to defer a request to participate during a period of Industrial Disability Leave eligibility.
3. Employees may donate a maximum of forty (40) hours of leave credits per fiscal year in increments of one hour or more. Donations are irrevocable.
4. Donated leave credits may be used to supplement only Industrial Disability Leave, Non-Industrial Disability Leave or Temporary Disability payments from the Third Party Administrator upon the application for the appropriate disability benefit by an eligible employee. The total amount of leave credits donated and used may not exceed an amount sufficient to ensure the continuance of the employee's regular monthly rate of compensation.
5. The total donated leave credits shall normally not exceed an amount necessary to continue the employee for three (3) calendar months calculated from the first day of catastrophic leave. The President may approve an additional three-month period in exceptional cases. The leave should not be deemed donated until actually transferred by the campus record keeper to the record of the employee receiving leave credits.
6. For employees whose appointment have not been renewed, donated time may not be used beyond the employee's appointment expiration date in effect at the beginning of the disability.
7. Only vacation and sick leave credits may be donated.
8. Donated leave credits may be used to receive service credit following a service or disability retirement.
9. Any CSU Union may solicit leave donations from bargaining unit employees for direct transfer to employees eligible to receive such leave credits.
10. Catastrophic illness or injury may also include an incapacitated member of the employee's immediate family if this results in the employee being required to take time off for an extended period of time in order to care for the family member and the employee has exhausted both all of his/her accrued vacation credits and all of his/her accrued sick leave credits which may be used for family care in accordance with the appropriate collective bargaining agreement. Only donated vacation credits may be used for such family care catastrophic leave. Immediate family member shall be defined in accordance with the definition contained in the sick leave provisions of the collective bargaining agreement covering the recipient employee.
11. The provisions of this program shall be subject to the grievance procedure contained in the collective bargaining agreement covering the grieving employee.
12. Pledges leave credits will be formally transferred to the recipient employee only at the end of a pay period, and then in chronological order of the dates actually pledged. This will insure that any unused leave credits are never actually transferred until they can in fact be used by the recipient employee. In the event that an employee is unable to use all pledged credits in a pay period, the most recently donated leave credits which cannot be utilized will then never formally be transferred, thereby guaranteeing that they are in no way lost by an employee who wants to donate them in order to help a co-worker who needs the credits.

(2) Natural Disaster and State of Emergency:

1. Catastrophic leave for a natural disaster shall be leave for an employee who faces financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all of all of his/her accrued vacation credits; accrued sick leave credits; personally holiday credits; and C.T.O. Credits; and is unable to work due to the effect of a natural disaster on the employee's principle residence.
2. The employee resides in one of the counties where a state of emergency exists as declared by the governor.
3. An employee or his/her representative must request the employee's participation and provide appropriate verification as determined by the campus President. The President shall then determine the employee's eligibility to receive donations based upon the definitions provided above.
4. Employees may donate a maximum of forty (40) hours of leave credits per fiscal year in increment of one hour or more. Donations are irrevocable.
5. The total amount of leave credits donated and used may not exceed an amount sufficient to ensure the continuance of the employee's regular monthly rate of compensation.
6. The total donated leave credits shall normally not exceed an amount necessary to continue the employee for three (3) calendar months calculated form the first day of catastrophic leave. The President may approve an additional three-month period in exceptional cases. The leave should not be deemed donated until actually transferred by the campus record keeper to the record of the employee receiving leave credits.