Scope

All University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) Regular Academic/Administrative, Managerial/Professional and Office/Service employees who are .50 full-time employees (FTE) or greater and who accrue vacation leave are eligible to participate. Employees must have completed their new hire probationary period before participating. 

Subject to the eligibility requirements contained in this policy and any eligibility requirements in a campus policy, a regular employee (who has six months of continuous employment) may, upon approval of the campus administration receive from the crisis leave pool up to the number of days of vacation leave she/he accrues in one calendar year, not to exceed 24 work days.

Policy Statement

In accordance with Policy approved by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, the following regulations shall apply to a Crisis Leave Sharing Program administered by the Human Resources Office. 

Donation of Leave
Regular employees who earn vacation leave may donate to the crisis leave pool up to five (5) accumulated vacation days per calendar year. Donations of accumulated vacation leave to the crisis leave pool will be accounted for on the basis of the number of days donated, rather than the dollar value of the days donated. Employees with a leave balance subject to exceed the 280 hours maximum allowance may donate vacation leave to the crisis leave pool to retain the vacation accrual status. Crisis leave may not be donated in units of less than one full day (eight hours).

Eligible employees may receive crisis leave from the pool up to the number of days of vacation leave they accrue in one calendar year*, not to exceed 24 workdays. Crisis leave will be granted in units of days and shall be prorated for employees who work less than full-time. Employees are eligible to receive crisis leave when all of the available sick, vacation and compensatory leaves have been exhausted including a negative balance of 40 hours total vacation and sick leave use. 

Regular employees are eligible to receive crisis leave:

1. When all of their available sick leave, vacation leave and compensatory leave (as may be applicable to the purpose of the crisis leave request) has been exhausted
2. When additional leave is required for one of the following reasons:

• Serious illness of the employee; or the employee's spouse
• Serious illness of the employee’s child, parent, or a person bearing the same relationship to the employee’s spouse.

*Based on their accrual rate at time of request, not to exceed 24 work days. 

Reason for Policy

The purpose of which is to allow employees to donate accumulated vacation leave for potential use in emergency situations by other employees whose leave has been exhausted.

Procedures

Requests for crisis leave must be made on a form available in the Human Resources Office. The university may require appropriate certification of documentation.

Each request for crisis leave shall be evaluated upon criteria which include:

• Whether or not the reason for the leave is appropriate under the policy
• Availability of leave within the crisis leave pool
• Employee's record of leave use

The approval or denial of crisis leave shall be made through the normal administrative process concluding with the Director of Human Resources. Denial of crisis leave shall not be an event covered under any grievance procedures. Denial of crisis leave shall not be a grievable event under any campus or university grievance policy or procedure.

Definitions

Serious Illness:

1. Requires at least one overnight stay in a hospital, hospice or other residential health care facility under the treatment or supervision of a physician or other licensed health care provider, or
2. Requires an absence from work for more than three (3) consecutive days as recommended by the physician or other licensed health care provider, or
3. Is a chronic or long term illness that is incurable or so serious that if untreated would probably lead to incapacity for more than three (3) days, and requires continuing medical treatment or supervision

Forms

Visit the HR Hub for Forms

History

This policy was developed and approved prior to the implementation of the campus policy development and approval process approved by the Chancellor’s Cabinet in October 2015.