Hardship Option – Personal Leave. Employees who experience extreme hardship circumstances (serious illness, injury, medical trauma, substantial property loss), personally or within the immediate family (defined as spouse, parent (including step relationships), or child (including, step, adopted, and legal guardian), and who have exhausted all applicable leave-of-absence time available to them, may apply for personal leave time to be donated by other covered employees. The request, with information pertaining to the need, will be made to the Director of Human Resources (or designee) and to a panel of five persons (director of human resources or designee, two other administrators, and two teachers appointed by the Association). The panel will consider each request and determine if the situation merits approval for donated personal leave. Approved requests, with all appropriate factors relating to the need, will then be communicated by the CFEA to employees covered by this Agreement. Willing employees may donate personal leave credited to them by completing a form available from each site office and the Association office. These non-returnable donations may be in one-half day or full day amounts, and may not exceed two days annually. Donated days may be specified for use by a specific individual, in the event that more than one employee has qualified for donation, or the days may be available for use as needed by those who have qualified. All information on the origin of donated days will be kept confidential. The Association will be kept informed by the director of human resources (or designee), as to the amount of time donated and the leave status of the employees who have qualified for donated days. If donated personal leave days are not sufficient to meet the needs of the affected employee(s) after the first request for donations, additional requests for days may be communicated by the CFEA. Forms for donation of personal leave days should be sent to the personnel office within ten (10) working days after each request. A maximum of three requests for donation of personal leave days may be made per hardship occurrence.
