Human Resources

The Catastrophic Leave Program provides a method for employees to assist fellow employees who have exhausted their paid leave time due to a catastrophic illness or injury of the employee or the employee’s family member.

To be eligible, the employee must meet all of the following criteria:

1. Have successfully completed first probationary period, with the exception of Deputy Sheriff's, who must have completed six months of employment in a paid status.
2. Must be on an approved leave of absence.
3. Must have exhausted all paid leave balances.
4. Must not be receiving compensation from Workers' Compensation, Disability Insurance, or Social Security.
5. Must be disabled, or have family member disabled due to a verifiable, catastrophic injury or illness.

Catastrophic illness or injury is an illness or injury which is expected to incapacitate the employee for an extended period of time and which creates a financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all of his/her accumulated leave. Catastrophic illness or injury is further defined as a debilitating illness or injury of an immediate family member or a qualified domestic partner, that results in the employee being required to take time off from work for an extended period to care for the family member, when this creates a financial hardship because the employee has exhausted all of his/her accumulated leave. Immediate family shall mean son or daughter including variation of step or foster, child of domestic partnership, spouse, parents, grandparents, brother or sister of the employee, or corresponding relative by affinity.

Please navigate to NEOGOV eForms to apply.

With your permission, the Benefits Manager will send notices for posting in your department to your Payroll Clerk. The notice will say that you have been approved for Catastrophic Leave and employees who would like to donate vacation hours should contact the Benefits Manger in Human Resources.

The donated vacation hours are converted to a cash value based on the donor’s rate of pay. The cash value is then divided by the recipients’ hourly rate, to arrive at the number of hours donated. The hours donated are then given to the recipient as sick leave hours. In other words, if the donor’s salary were double the recipient’s salary, a 10-hour donation would result in 20 hours of sick leave for the person on Catastrophic Leave.

No. Only vacation hours may be donated.

The minimum donation is 8 vacation hours. There is no maximum donation. However, in all cases the donor must have a minimum balance of 80 vacation hours following the donation.

No. Donations can only be made to specific employee on approved Catastrophic Leave. The County does maintain a list of employees who have asked to be contacted when there is an employee in need of catastrophic leave donations. We refer to that list as the Catastrophic Leave Donor Pool.

Please log into NEOGOV eForms to submit a "Leave Transfer Form."

Please contact your department HR or Payroll Coordinator for assistance.