U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

An agency may choose to adopt the following sample plan for administering the emergency leave transfer program or develop its own plan.

SAMPLE AGENCY PLAN

EMERGENCY LEAVE TRANSFER PROGRAM

Authority

Section 6391 of title 5, United States Code, provides that in the event of a major disaster or emergency, as declared by the President, that results in severe adverse effects for a substantial number of Federal employees, the President maydirect the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to establish an emergency leave transfer program under which an employee in an executive agency may donate annual leave for transfer to employees of the agency or to employees in other agencies who are adversely affected by such disaster or emergency.

As directed by the President in his memorandum of [insert date], OPM has established an emergency leave transfer program to assist Federal employees affected by [insert event]. (See [insert OPM memorandum]). The [insert agency] has delegated to the [insert organization and/or position title] the authority to administer an emergency leave transfer program for employees of [insert organization], consistent with OPM’s regulations at 5 CFR part 630, subpart K. Officials of the [insert organization and/or position title] must take action to approve or disapprove a request from a Federal employee to become an emergency leave recipient based on evidence that is administratively acceptable to the deciding official. The deciding official will also determine the amount of donated annual leave to be transferred to each emergency leave recipient. The amount may vary according to individual needs. This determination must be based on whether the potential leave recipient, or his or her family member, is or was adversely affected by [insert event].

Eligible Employees

An employee (as defined in 5 U.S.C. 6331(1)) who has been adversely affected by a disaster or emergency (e.g., a major disaster or emergency that results in loss of life or property, serious injury, or mental illness as a result of a direct threat to life or health) may receive donated leave under the emergency leave transfer program. In addition, an employee who has a family member who has been adversely affected by a disaster or emergency and who does not have reasonable access to other forms of assistance may receive donated leave under the emergency leave transfer program. An employee is considered to be adversely affected by a major disaster or emergency if the disaster or emergency has caused severe hardship to the employee or family member to such a degree that the employee’s absence from work is required. An employee is not required to exhaust other available leave before receiving donated leave under the emergency leave transfer program.

Emergency Leave Recipient

An employee (or personal representative or the agency on the employee’s behalf) must make a written application to become an emergency leave recipient. OPM Form 1637, Application to Become a Leave Recipient Under the Emergency Leave Transfer Program, available at http://www.opm.gov/forms/html/emerg.htm, must be used to request donated leave under the emergency leave transfer program. Requests for donated leave must be received in the [insert organization] by [insert date]. The [insert organization] will notify leave recipients of approval of their applications. An emergency leave recipient may not receive more than 240 hours of donated annual leave at any one time from an emergency leave transfer program.

An emergency leave recipient must use leave donated under the emergency leave transfer program for purposes related to the major disaster or emergency for which the emergency leave recipient was approved. Donated annual leave may be substituted retroactively for any leave without pay used by the emergency leave recipient during the major disaster or emergency or may be used to liquidate an indebtedness incurred by the emergency leave recipient for advance annual or sick leave.

Emergency Leave Donor

An employee may voluntarily submit a written request to become an emergency leave donor. Employees must use OPM Form 1638, Application to Become a Leave Donor Under the Emergency Leave Transfer Program, available at http://www.opm.gov/forms/html/emerg.htm, to donate annual leave under the emergency leave transfer program. The emergency leave donor must specify the number of hours of accrued annual leave he or she requests to be transferred from his or her annual leave account to the emergency leave transfer program. The minimum amount of annual leave an emergency leave donor may contribute in a leave year is 1 hour, and the maximum amount is 104 hours. [Insert organization] may waive the 104-hour limitation, if sufficient annual leave is not donated. Anemergency leave donor may not donate annual leave for transfer to a specific emergency leave recipient. [Insert organization] will maintain records on the amount of leave donated by each emergency leave donor (for the purpose of returning unused donated annual leave to emergency leave donors).

Termination of an Emergency Leave Transfer Program

An emergency leave transfer program will terminate under the conditions described in 5 CFR 630.1108

Returning Unused Donated Annual Leave

Donated annual leave that is not used by emergency leave recipients will be returned to the emergency leave donors. The amount of unused donated annual leave that must be returned to each emergency leave donor must be proportional to the amount of annual leave donated by the emergency leave donor, consistent with OPM’s regulations in 5 CFR 630.1108.

Financial and Payroll Processing Systems and Procedures

The [insert financial organization and/or payroll provider] will provide procedures for processing requests for donating or receiving leave under the emergency leave transfer program. In the meantime, the [insert organization] may begin the process of manually collecting donated annual leave and transferring donated annual leave to approved emergency leave recipients.

• Leave Administration Main Page
• Emergency Leave Transfer Fact Sheet