Discussion:
Since becoming a City of Shakopee employee, in May, 2016, I have seen an large number of city employees who have been affected by a family tragedy or severe medical condition, for either themselves, or an immediate family member.
These situations have led to employees using all of there accrued sick and vacation balances. Over the course of the last two years, we have replaced or added nearly 30% of our workforce, which includes new employees who are not accruing a large amount of time off. When a severe medical-related issue happens, and that employee needs to be out - there is a need to try and support that employee. However, there is no outlet for a city employee to donate time to other employees.
I am proposing a new policy for the city, a Leave Donation Policy. This Policy would allow city employees to donate time to a "bank". That "bank" would be available for employees, which are eligible for use of the donated time. This would be a huge benefit to our employees, as we have some long term employees with large balances of sick and vacation time, that would be able to, if they so choose, donate time to help other employees in a time of need.
This is a voluntary program, city employees would be able to donate at their will, for up to 40 hours in a calendar year. An employee does have to meet the established criteria to become eligible to use donated time, including the fact that both their combined balances of sick and vacation leave be under 40 hours.