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Use of Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave is limited to the available leave hours established by Pierce County for employees as specified in this Chapter. This program is designed to create a bank of leave hours for Pierce County employees to cover catastrophic medical conditions, illnesses or injuries after an employee has exhausted all other accrued leave.

A. In order to qualify for Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave pay, the employee must first exhaust available sick leave benefits provided pursuant to Chapter 3.68 PCC, all vacation leave available to the employee pursuant to Chapter 3.72 PCC, compensatory time earned, personal holidays and/or accrued furlough, and any applicable leave of absence with pay as specified in Chapter 3.76 PCC. Upon exhaustion of the benefits referred to above, the employee, or the employee's guardian or legal representative, in the event the employee is incapacitated or otherwise physically incapable of making the request for humanitarian catastrophic leave, shall make a written request, upon forms available from the Pierce County Human Resources Department, to the employee's department director for Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave. Upon receipt by the department director the catastrophic leave request shall be forwarded to the Human Resources Department.

1. The following shall be considered when determining whether to approve a leave request pursuant to this Chapter:

a. The nature of the medical condition, illness or injury;

b. The likelihood that the employee will be medically able to return to work.

c. Such other factors as may be relevant to evaluation of the request.

2. Approval for leave shall be made by the Human Resources Director or designee after review with the Department Director and the County's EEO/ADA Officer.

B. Employees utilizing catastrophic leave shall keep the Human Resources Department informed with written certification from a physician. The physician's certificate shall state the nature of the medical condition, illness or injury, the prognosis for recovery, and the estimated length of the absence. The County may require that the physician's letter be updated every week, in writing, during a period of catastrophic leave bank usage.

C. "Relatives living with and dependent upon the employee" means those persons listed and approved as dependents on the employee's medical insurance beneficiary designation form at the time of application for benefits under this Section.

(Ord. 2023-39 § 1, 2023; Ord. 2019-11 § 1 (part), 2019; Ord. 2008-106s § 1 (part), 2008; Ord. 2004-7s § 2 (part), 2004; Ord. 88-21S § 1 (part), 1990)