Procedure: Miscellaneous Leave
This procedure addresses leave with pay available to eligible employees for specific reasons. Eligible employees who are absent from work in accordance with the provisions in this procedure are not charged accrued leave or compensatory time for absences.
Court Leave
Court leave is available to eligible employees on all days that employees are summoned for jury duty, subpoenaed or otherwise ordered to attend a judicial proceeding by any Federal, State or Local Court. Court leave may also be used for out-of-state judicial proceedings.
1) Eligible Employees: Classified and unclassified employees who are scheduled to work on a day they are ordered to attend a judicial proceeding are eligible for court leave, unless they are litigants, defendants or other principal parties or have any other personal or familial interest in the proceedings.a) Employees not eligible for court leave, due to being litigants, defendants or other principal parties or for having other personal or familial interest in the proceedings, may request to use annual leave, personal leave, compensatory time or leave without pay in order to attend judicial proceedings.
b) Employees who are required to appear in court on behalf of the department are in work status and are not to be placed on court leave.
NOTE: Questions regarding the granting of court leave in unique situations should be reviewed on a case by case basis with the Human Resource Manager and/or Vice President of Administration.
2) Notification: As soon as employees become aware of the need for court leave, they must provide documentation (e.g., a copy of the summons, subpoena or other judicial order) to their supervisor as a pre-requisite for approval of court leave.
3) Time Allowed: Court leave includes the time that an employee's presence is actually required by the judicial proceeding and any reasonable time needed to prepare for and recuperate from the ordered duty. Employees are expected to report for work whenever the judicial proceeding schedule permits.
4) Penalties Prohibited: Employees will not be discharged, disciplined or otherwise penalized because of absences from work for the purpose of attending a judicial proceeding in response to a subpoena, summons for jury duty, or other court order or process which requires attendance at judicial proceedings. In addition, court leave is to have no effect on performance evaluations.
Disaster Volunteer Leave
Qualified employees may be eligible for disaster volunteer leave with pay for up to 15 workdays in a 12-month period to participate in specialized disaster relief.
In order to qualify for disaster volunteer leave:1) Employees must be certified disaster service volunteers of the American Red Cross,
2) There must be a disaster declared by the U.S. President or a State Governor or either Georgia or a neighboring state with a reciprocal agreement, and
3) The American Red Cross must request the employee's services.Qualified employees are to submit requests for disaster volunteer leave to their supervisor. Requests will be reviewed and either approved or denied on a case-by-case basis as determined by the Commissioner, President, or his or her designee.
Grievance Preparation Time
Classified and unclassified employees eligible to file a grievance may be granted up to four (4) hours of work time, as approved by the supervisor, to file or process a grievance. A maximum of twelve (12) hours per calendar year may be approved as grievance preparation time.
Leave for Blood Donation
Employees may be granted leave with pay when donating blood and when donating blood platelets (the part of the blood that helps clotting) or ganulocytes (white blood cells) through the phoresis process.
Note: Phoresis is a procedure in which blood is drawn from a donor and separated into its components, some of which are retained. The remainder is returned by transfusion to the donor.
1) Notification: Employees must request and receive prior approval from their supervisor to be away from the work area for blood donation.
2) Time Allowed: Time off for blood donation includes the time required to donate the blood, platelets or granulocytes and to recover from the donation.a) Up to two (2) hours per donation may be granted when employees donate blood.
b) Up to four (4) hours per donation may be granted when the employees donate blood platelets or granulocytes through the phoresis process.
c) Leave may be granted up to four (4) times per calendar year for each of the above types of blood donation.
Leave of Absence for Kidney Donation
A leave of absence with pay for thirty (30) calendar days will be granted to employees who donate a kidney for transplantation. This leave of absence will be included as service in computing any retirement or pension benefits.
1) Notification: Employees requesting a leave of absence to donate a kidney must provide to their supervisor or other designated official a statement from the medical practitioner performing the transplant or from the hospital administrator. This statement must certify that the employee is donating a kidney for transplantation.
If the kidney donation does not take place, any absence will be charged to accrued leave or leave without pay.
Voting Time
Employees are to be permitted to take necessary time off for voting purposes. If the polls are not open either two (2) hours before or two (2) hours after employees' scheduled work hours, the difference in time may be granted as leave with pay for voting purposes.
EXAMPLE: An employee's work hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Since this schedule would not allow two (2) hours either before or after work for voting, this employee may be granted 30 minutes of time with pay for voting purposes, if needed.
If necessary, employees who are not eligible for this voting time with pay may request to use accrued annual or personal leave, compensatory time or leave without pay for voting purposes.
Administrative Leave
The Commissioner, an Assistant Commissioner or Technical College President may place any employee on administrative leave with pay when such action it is in the best interest of the Department.
Personal Leave
Employees who have accumulated more than 120 hours (15 days) of sick leave as of November 30 of any year may convert up to 24 hours (3 days) of the accumulation in excess of 120 hours (15 days) to personal leave. Written notification of such conversion shall be provided to the appropriate personnel office no later than December 31 of each year.
Personal leave shall be available for use by an employee during the calendar year following the year of conversion.
Subject to the approval of the Technical College President or Assistant Commissioner, personal leave may be used by the employee for personal reasons. The Technical College President or Assistant Commissioner shall make every reasonable effort to accommodate requests to utilize personal leave.
The use of personal leave shall be approved in the same manner as annual leave.
1) Limitations: Once an employee's election to convert sick leave to personal leave has been verified by the Personnel Director or Vice President of Administration, such election shall be irrevocable.
2) Personal leave shall be forfeited and not restored to the employee if not used by December 31 of the year in which such leave was available to the employee or upon termination of the employee during such year.
References
Created: October 2, 2001