Federal employees would be able to donate annual leave to employees in other agencies when natural disasters strike under proposed regulations issued this week by the Office of Personnel Management.
The emergency leave transfer plan would fill a void left by the current voluntary leave transfer program, which allows interagency transfers only for medical emergencies.
"From experience through natural disasters, we realized there was a gap in the types of things permissible in the voluntary leave program," said OPM spokesman Michael Orenstein. "In certain situations, there was no leave left."
Under the proposed plan, workers would be able to donate some of their vacation time to leave "banks." When natural disasters or other major emergencies occur, affected employees could withdraw leave time from the banks.
Employees affected by natural disasters must currently use all of their own annual and sick leave before tapping into donated leave. The new plan would let employees use donated leave before using their own leave. In addition, agencies would be allowed to donate leave time from agency-only leave banks into a governmentwide coffer.
In the past, the President had to issue a memorandum to make interagency leave transfers possible. Orenstein said such memoranda were too time consuming. Under the new plan, the President would be able to quickly authorize donations of leave during emergency situations.
"It's best to have a program in place where all you need is presidential authorization," Orenstein said. "All in all, agencies will look favorably upon this as a way of dealing with something out of their control and providing a benefit that wasn't there. It's a win-win situation."
The proposed regulations were published in the Federal Register on Monday. To see them, click here.
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