At some point during our working careers, probably most of us will have to face a serious health condition either for ourselves or for one of our immediate family members, which requires us to be absent from work either sporadically or for an extended period of time.
Fortunately, under the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program (VLTP), FAA employees are allowed to donate both their annual and sick leave to such employees during their time of need, if the affected employees don’t have sufficient paid leave to cover their medically-related absences from work.
In order to qualify to receive such donated leave, an employee must have a documented medical emergency for him/herself (or that of the family member), which has or will cause the employee to use all of his/her available paid leave, and still need to be absent from work for at least 24 consecutive work hours without paid leave due to the medical condition. If so, then he/she is eligible to apply for the VLTP.
Please note that sometimes employees feel they don’t qualify to apply for the VLTP, because their managers have advanced them annual or sick leave, so they actually haven’t been in a Leave Without Pay (LWOP) status due to the medical emergency. However, please know that advanced leave does not disqualify someone from applying for the VLTP, if he/she would have been in a LWOP status for 24 consecutive working hours or more if not for the advanced leave; therefore, the employee is still eligible to apply for and receive donated leave under the VLTP. Fortunately, many FAA employees who have faced such dire medical emergencies were blessed to have received leave donations from other generous fellow FAA employees. However, please note there are limits on how much leave one can donate to another employee, as noted below.
In terms of annual leave, an employee can donate no more than one-half the amount of annual leave he/she will accrue during the leave year. In addition, an employee with projected use/lose annual leave can donate only an amount that is the lesser of one-half of the expected accrued annual leave for the leave year, or the number of hours remaining in the leave year as of the date the donor applies, for which the leave donor is scheduled to work and receive pay. In other words, an employee with use/lose annual leave can only donate the number of hours he/she could use for him/herself.
For example, an employee who earns 8 hours per pay period can donate up to 104 hours of annual leave (i.e., half what he/she would accrue that leave year) throughout most of the leave year, because at that point in time he/she would still have an opportunity to personally use that amount of leave had he/she not donated it. However, if that same employee waited until there was just one day left in the leave year, then in this example, he/she could only donate one day of annual leave (e.g., 8 hours), because that’s the maximum amount of annual leave he/she could personally use during the remainder of that leave year.
As for sick leave, an employee can donate no more than the amount of sick leave he/she accrues in the leave year (i.e., 104 hours for a full-time employee). However, if an employee is separating from the FAA, then he/she can only donate the lesser of the amount of sick leave he/she accrues in a leave year, or the number of work hours remaining as of the date of donation, for which the donor is scheduled to work and receive pay up to his/her separation date.
In other words, while an employee can donate the maximum amount of sick leave at any time during the leave year, if he/she is ending his/her federal career, (e.g., retirement), then he/she can only donate the maximum amount of sick leave he/she can personally use during his/her remaining federal employment time. For example, if an employee waited until there was only one day left before he/she retired, then only one day of sick leave could be donated; if there was one week left in his/her employment, then the most he/she could donate is one week of sick leave (e.g., 40 hours), etc.
While there are some provisions for waiving these limits when donating to a family member, a waiver is never permitted if the donor would not otherwise be able to use the leave him/herself. Also, please note that employees are prohibited by FAA policy from donating leave to a manager within the employee’s chain of command.
Further, if a union contract contains VLTP provisions that vary from FAA guidance, then the union contract provisions will supersede any of the above noted FAA VLTP guidelines for the covered bargaining-unit employees.
In closing, if you have any questions about the VLTP, or are interested in either donating leave or registering to be in the VLTP, please contact our MMAC Labor and Employee Relations Division at (405) 954-4080.
