Shared Sick Leave Program

The Shared Sick Leave Program allows all regular, benefits-eligible employees of Augusta University with a work commitment of one half time (20 hours a week) or more to voluntarily contribute unused sick leave to a pool for use by another benefits-eligible employee who is also a member of the program and who is experiencing a serious health condition or whose immediate family member is experiencing a serious health condition and who has used all of their accumulated paid leave.

Leave Donation

Employees will be given the opportunity to donate a specified number of sick leave hours (in eight (8) hour increments up to a maximum of 80 sick leave hours per enrollment period) from their sick leave accounts to the Shared Leave pool by completing an Enrollment Form. The donated leave will be transferred to the Shared Leave pool at the same time other benefit elections are effective (normally January 1).

Eligibility for Benefit:

In order to receive Shared Leave, the employee must:

  • be a member of the leave program, and
  • have completed the initial provisional period of employment, and
  • provide certification of a serious health condition from a licensed physician, and
  • have exhausted all sick and annual leave (or provide credible medical evidence that he or she will exhaust all sick and annual leave before the medical condition is resolved).

Membership Termination

An employee may withdraw from the pool at any time by sending a written request to the Shared Leave Program Administrator. Any leave contributed to the pool prior to withdrawal shall be forfeited.

Requesting Shared Leave

An eligible employee may request shared leave by submitting the Request Form and a completed Physician’s Certification Form to the shared sick leave program administrator. If the employee is not capable of making application on his or her own behalf, a personal representative, having documented power of attorney for the employee, may make written application on behalf of the employee.

A potential leave recipient may request up to 160 hours (pro-rated for part-time employees) of Shared Leave at one time, and may make up to two additional requests for Shared Leave within a calendar year, for a maximum total of 480 hours (12 weeks) (pro-rated for part-time employees) per year. The requests may be consecutive.

Approval Process

Donated leave requests will be reviewed by the program administrator and the Shared Leave Program Committee (if applicable). The leave recipient will be notified within ten (10) working days after the completed request is received (or the period designated within institutional policies or procedures, if that date is later) that:

  • the request has been approved; and
  • the date the employee may begin drawing leave from the pool, and
  • if the employee has entered the status of leave without pay, the approved Shared Leave may be substituted retroactively to cover the period of leave without pay.
  • Or the request has been denied; and the reason for the denial

Appeal

Requests which have been denied may be appealed in writing to the institution’s Chief Human Resources Officer. If the Chief Human Resources Officer is serving as the program administrators, an alternative appropriate appeal process must be established.

Confidentiality

Any medical information provided in conjunction with shared leave requests will remain confidential and will only be shared on a strict need to know basis directly related solely to shared sick leave program administration. Additionally, potential leave recipients, their representatives, departmental constituents and/or shared leave committee members may not reveal any health information or medical condition as part of their application for shared leave as such communications may violate HIPAA, GINA and other privacy guidelines.  

 

Information:

Forms: