Voluntary Vacation/Sick Time Donation Program (Staff)

Wilkes University recognizes that employees may be out of work for extended periods due to circumstances related to their own or immediate family member’s health/well-being or to attend to personal issues related to emergency situations. In some instances, these absences may exceed an employee’s available paid time off. To assist our employees, the University has adopted a vacation/sick time donation program which allows employees to donate their accrued vacation time and/or sick time to another University employee whose request for donated time is approved by the Donated Time Committee.

Receiving Donations

Employees may be eligible to receive donated time when they:

  • Are eligible to accrue vacation time.
  • Have completed one full year of employment.
  • Exhaust all accrued time (vacation, personal day and sick time if applicable).
  • Receive approval from the Donated Time Committee.

Using Donated Time

After an employee has exhausted all applicable benefit time (vacation, personal and sick), donated time may be used during the following circumstances:

  • The Short Term Disability (STD) waiting period for the employee’s own serious health condition.
  • Documented FMLA time away from work to care for a dependent.
  • Time away from work due to catastrophic events, such as fire, flooding, etc.

Requesting Donated Time

An eligible employee (or designee) must complete the employee section of the University’s Donated Time Request Form (.pdf) and submit the Form to Human Resources.

The requested amount per pay period cannot exceed the employee’s normal hours worked. Overtime pay is not included in normal hours.

Once submitted, Human Resources will review the form for completeness to verify that all benefit time (vacation, personal and sick) has been exhausted and forward to the Donated Time Committee (Provost/Senior Vice President, Associate Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Risk/Compliance Officer) for review.

Employees are eligible to utilize up to 10 days of donated time per rolling calendar year, subject to the Donated Time Committee’s approval.

Following committee review, Human Resources will notify the employee about his/her request status (approved or not). If the request is approved, Human Resources will notify payroll to process the request during the employee’s next normally scheduled payroll period.

Making Donations

Employees wishing to donate time should complete the University's Vacation/Sick Time Donor Form (.pdf). Vacation and sick time must be donated in hour increments.

Employees may donate up to 35 hours of accrued vacation time per fiscal year. Vacation hours that would have normally been lost from one fiscal year to the next cannot be donated (see Wilkes Vacation Benefits Policy).

Employees donating sick time must maintain a balance of at least 210 banked hours (employees working 35 hours/week) or 240 banked hours (employees working 40 hours/week).

Time will be allocated to the university’s donation pool and disbursed by the Donated Time Committee on a first come first served, case by case basis. All donations are confidential unless the donor specifically authorizes Human Resources to share his/her identity with the employee who receives the donated time.

Once an employee has submitted a Vacation/Sick Time Donor form, the donated time may not be rescinded for any reason.

Using Donated Time

  • The Donated Time Committee will only allocate up to the amount of time verified by Human Resources.
  • Donated time will be paid at the recipient’s normal hourly rate.
  • Donated time cannot exceed an employee’s weekly normal hours worked.
  • Approved donated time payments will cease if the employee returns to work prior to the originally scheduled date.
  • An employee’s normal deductions (benefits, taxes, etc.) will be taken while the employee is using donated time.
  • An employee will not accrue vacation or sick time while utilizing donated time.

The university reserves the right to amend or repeal this program at any time.

Employee Donation Form (.pdf)

Donated Time Request Form (.pdf)

Revised: Oct. 2019