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Donated Leave Program
Program Description
The Donated Leave Program* enables eligible The College of New Jersey employees to voluntarily donate a portion of their earned sick and/or vacation time to other TCNJ employees who have exhausted their own earned leave and who are suffering from a catastrophic** health condition or injury which is expected to require a prolonged absence from work.
* The Donated Leave Program is prescribed for classified employees under N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.22.
** For the purpose of this program, catastrophic shall generally be defined as life threatening.
Eligibility
Recipient
An employee shall be eligible to receive donated sick and/or vacation time from other eligible employees provided they meet the following criteria and requirements:
- TCNJ employment of not less than one year of continuous service.
- An employee suffers from catastrophic health condition or injury which requires absence from work for a prolonged period (60 days per the administrative code).
- An employee is needed to care for an immediate family member who is suffering from a catastrophic health condition or injury.
- An employee requires an absence from work due to the donation of an organ.
- Medical verification from a physician or other licensed health care provider describing the nature, severity, and the anticipated duration of the disability.
- Exhaustion of all accrued leave time including compensatory time, sick leave, vacation leave and administrative leave.
- Transfer of not less than five (5) donated days from one or more qualified leave donors.
Donor
A leave donor must meet the following criteria and requirements:
- An irrevocable donation of not more than 10 days to any one recipient in whole days, provided that the donor shall retain a remaining balance of not less than 20 days of accrued sick leave, if donating sick leave; and 12 days of accrued vacation leave if donating vacation leave.
- Certification that no solicitation and/or acceptance of any money, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value or compensation of any kind has been provided, directly or indirectly, to the donor.
Procedures
The Donated Leave Program is administered by the Office of Human Resources subject to monitoring, audit and appropriate rules issued by the New Jersey Department of Personnel in accordance with N.J.A.C. 4A:6-1.22.(Classified employees only).
Participation in the program is on a strictly voluntary basis limited to a recipient receiving a total of not more than 180 days on a non-retroactive basis.
Requests are subject to approval of the Recipient Affidavit and Donor Transfer Certification Forms.
In the event the employee is unable to complete the Recipient Affidavit Form, the employee's designated family may complete the form on behalf of the employee. A supervisor may also initiate this process on behalf of the employee. Notice shall be provided to all appropriate negotiation representatives.
The donor's leave account will be reduced by the number of days that are donated.
The eligible recipient's leave account will be credited with the donated time upon approval of the Recipient Affidavit Form. The recipient may receive days from more than one donor to a maximum 180 days.
Any unused, donated leave time shall be credited to the leave donor or donors on a prorated basis upon the leave recipient's return to work. However, any portion that would amount to less than one day per donor will not be returned. The leave recipient shall continue to accrue sick and vacation leave while using donated leave time. This entitlement shall be retained and credited to the employee upon his/her return to work.
Recipients cannot collect Temporary Disability Insurance while participating in the Leave Donation Program. Once an employee has exhausted all benefits from the Leave Donation Program, the employee can enroll or re-enroll in the Temporary Disability Insurance Program.
Upon retirement, the leave recipient shall not be granted supplemental compensation for any sick leave he/she received through the donated sick leave program.
