Eligibility to Receive Donations

Employees who can receive donations are all faculty and staff who hold regular 50% or greater appointments and accrue vacation or sick leave benefits.

  • When leave is medically necessary due to an employee's own catastrophic illness or injury, contributions are applied as sick leave. The contributions are applied when the employee has exhausted all paid sick leave, vacation, and compensatory time to which they are entitled and has not yet satisfied the 90 working day waiting period for long-term disability benefits. This is reviewed monthly.
     
  • When leave is necessary for a catastrophic illness or injury in an employee’s family (spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent), contributions to that employee are deposited into their vacation leave. The contributions are used when the employee has exhausted all the Family Caregiving (sick) Leave, vacation, and compensatory time to which they are entitled.

Eligibility to Donate to Catastrophic Leave 

Employees who can donate their time are all faculty and staff holding regular appointments of 50% or greater and accrue vacation benefits. 

  • Sick time cannot be donated in place of vacation.
  • Donations are on a 1:1 ratio. 

Definitions

Individual Catastrophic Illness or Injury

An illness or injury resulting in a health condition for which a treating health care provider has certified the condition is likely to result in a loss of 30 or more workdays (6 weeks) during a 12 month period.

Includes maternity leave if the faculty or staff member does not have sufficient sick or vacation accruals to cover the medical period following the birth (generally six weeks/eight weeks for cesarean section).  An employee can not use catastrophic leave for non-medically-related bonding time.  

Family Catastrophic Illness or Injury

An illness or injury resulting in a health condition for which a treating healthcare provider has certified the condition is likely to result in the inability of the employee to report to work for more than 30 or more workdays in a 12 month period to care for an ill or injured immediate family member on a consecutive or intermittent basis.
Immediate Family Member

The employee's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent as defined by the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA):

  • a spouse recognized by Iowa law for purposes of marriage including common law and domestic partners of the same and opposite gender registered with University Benefits;
  • a parent, including biological, step, adoptive, foster, or an individual that functions as a parent;
  • a son or daughter under 18, including biological, step, adoptive or foster child, or legal ward.
  • Children over 18 with a disability may also be eligible.