Sick Leave Pool

Participation in the Sick Leave Pool (SLP) shall be voluntary on the part of eligible employees. Eligibility in the SLP is extended to employees after completion of six months of employment with the University, provided that a minimum of forty hours of sick and/or vacation leave has been accrued by full-time employees, or twenty hours by part-time employees. Full-time employees contribute eight hours of leave and part-time employees contribute four hours of leave to the SLP on a yearly basis. Participating employees may terminate their membership in the SLP at any time by notifying the Administrator.

Sick Leave Pool hours shall be granted only for the employee’s personal illness, injury, accident, or exposure to a contagious disease. Personal illness shall include, but not limited to disabilities which are the result of or contributed to by medical conditions (including those complications related to pregnancy or childbirth), surgery and recovery.

Participating employees must have depleted all their accrued leave hours before SLP hours will be granted. A participating full-time (1.0 FTE) employee may withdraw a maximum of 480 hours from the SLP during any twelve month period. Part-time employees may withdraw a maximum of 240 hours from the SLP during any twelve month period.

Employees retrieving SLP hours are required to follow the Medical Leave of absence process. Upon receipt of required medical documentation, the SLP Administrator who is responsible for the oversight of the program, will present the request to the SLP Committee which consists of six representative employees; two administrative employees, two faculty members and two staff members. A vote of a minimum of four is needed to grant hours to the employee.

Sick Leave Pool Membership Process

An employee has two opportunities in a year in which to join the SPL program.  The first is during the Annual Open Enrollment or at the time the employee reaches their initial six months of service.

1. During the Annual Open Enrollment or at the six month anniversary mark, eligible employees will receive via email (or if no email available, a hard copy) notice regarding the program and membership application.
2. If the employee is interested in joining, the employee should complete the SPL Membership Application and submit it to the SPL Administrator.
3. Upon receipt, the SLP Administration will verify the employee’s eligibility to join the pool.
4. If the employee is ineligible, the form is returned to the employee with a note on the application.
5. If approved, a letter is generated and the approval letter along with a copy of the policy forwarded to the employee (interoffice mail) for his/her files. Deduction of membership hours against the employee’s accrued time is executed within two payroll periods.
6. This membership is valid for one year.  In order to renew and keep the membership active, a notification will be sent of the upcoming annual deduction of half the hours that were required to join the SLP.
7. The employee may terminate the membership by sending an email to the Sick Leave Pool Administrator at hrleaves@fiu.edu.

Catastrophic Pool

The Catastrophic Pool is a voluntary program designed to allow eligible employees to donate sick leave hours directly from one employee to another employee who has exhausted their leave balances including sick, vacation, and compensatory time. Employees receiving Catastrophic Pool hours (donations) are required to follow the Medical Leave of absence process. Unlike the Sick Leave Pool Program, this program allows the donation of hours not only for the employee but for the employee’s immediate family member.  For the purpose of this policy, immediate family is defined as spouse, child(ren) (including foster and stepchildren), parents (including stepparents) and grandparents.

Catastrophic Pool Guidelines

The dean or director of the department where the affected employee works will need to coordinate the request, donation of hours, and secure approval from their respective vice president/provost by completing the Catastrophic Approval Memo. The coordinator must prepare a spreadsheet with the names and amount of hours donated by each employee. All donations of hours will need to be coordinated through the dean or director’s office. Once the vice president/provost’s approval is secured, the employee that is donating the hours will need to complete the Donation Hours Memo authorizing the transfer of sick leave hours.

The dean or director will need to submit to Human Resources, at HRleaves@fiu.edu, the following documents:

• Copy of the Catastrophic Approval Memo approved by the vice president/provost.
• Individual copies of the Donation Hours Memos signed by the donating employees.
• The spreadsheet with the panther ID, names, amount of hours donated by each employee and total amount of all donated hours.