3.69.050 Creation of Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank.
A. After completion of six months of regular County employment eligible employees shall be credited to their account a Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank of a maximum of 60 days of Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave, up to 480 hours. This leave account shall be a one time benefit established by the County for use by the employee in accordance with the regulations specified in this Chapter. This is not a vested benefit and the County Council may repeal this Chapter at any time and any leave balances shall revert to the County. Once an employee exhausts available Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank hours the employee will only be eligible for an unpaid leave of absence in accordance with County procedures. In the event an employee leaves County employment and is later reemployed by the County, any Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Hours used by an employee prior to separation from County employment shall be deducted from the Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank in effect at the time of reemployment, if any, in accordance with the regulations in effect at the time of reemployment.
B. Upon receipt of a request for participation in the Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank program, the department director shall forward to the Pierce County Human Resources Director the request for Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave for the determination of whether the incident specified in the request qualifies for participation in the program.
1. Waiver of Privacy Interest. An individual making a request for Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave request hereby expressly waives any privacy interest relating to the information contained in the humanitarian leave request and shall hold harmless Pierce County, its agents and assigns, from any and all claims relating to disclosures the County determines are necessary for the employees' application for or use of Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave. However, information provided in connection with Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave requests shall be treated as sensitive and confidential and unauthorized disclosure shall be grounds for disciplinary action.
2. The minimum time awarded shall be 5 workdays and the maximum award at a single request shall be 20 workdays. A "workday" shall be defined as one-fifth of the employee's normally scheduled work week hours. Supplemental requests may be made directly to the Human Resources Director upon a separate request form. Unless specifically limited by the review committee, the Human Resources Director may approve supplemental requests without presenting the supplemental request to the review committee. The maximum duration of any employee's utilization of Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave is limited to the employee's available approved Humanitarian Catastrophic leave hours.
3. When an employee has been granted Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave and the basis for the leave ceases to qualify for leave, any unused leave hours available to the employee shall revert to the employee's Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave Bank.
4. When an employee has been granted Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave and the employee subsequently receives compensation from a collateral source for the same injury covering the same period of time, the employee will be required to reimburse the County for such Humanitarian Catastrophic Leave.