Given that some Lab colleagues may have nearly exhausted otherwise available options for paid time away from work, Berkeley Lab has established a temporary Emergency Leave Donation Program to let employees assist fellow colleagues needing additional leave for absences related to COVID-19 circumstances.
Employees are able to donate accrued vacation hours to a leave-sharing bank to be distributed among eligible fellow Lab employees. This program is a great opportunity to make use of unused vacation time to help those in need, such as new parents who have exhausted FMLA and Administrative Leave hours in the face of school and/or daycare closures over the past 100 days and need assistance balancing family and work responsibilities without being financially impacted.
To help offset the financial difficulties this unique situation poses, consider donating unused hours from your currently accrued vacation time to support others in our community who need it the most.
Here’s a high-level overview of the program:
- Beginning immediately, Berkeley Lab employees can donate accrued vacation hours to a leave-sharing bank to be distributed among eligible fellow employees who do not have sufficient leave balances. Donations can not be made to a specific individual.
- This program is administered by the Integrated Disability and Absence Management (IDAM) team, who will review, process, and evaluate all donations and leave recipient requests.
- The minimum donation amount is one day or eight (8) vacation hours; any donations above this amount must be in four (4) hour increments.
- While we encourage donors to be generous, we encourage all donors to maintain their vacation accrual at a minimum of 40 hours.
- Recipients may receive up to a maximum of 240 hours of donated leave at any one time.
- IDAM will coordinate with Payroll for the designated amount of vacation leave to be deducted from the donor’s balance and placed in the Emergency Leave Donation bank. The IDAM team will also make a determination based on the needs outlined as to how much leave will be credited to eligible employees.
