Hello everyone! A quick note before we begin:

On January 1st, something negotiated in our current contract went into effect: a Cost-Of-Living Adjustment (COLA), increasing base wages by 2.5%. COLAs are covered in Article 24 of the current contract. Just like how PBS is made possible through viewers like you, COLAs are made possible through the hard work of the union’s contract bargaining team and your support of them!

Welcome to another installment of Kyla and Josh’s Cliff Notes Guide to your 2024-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)! Last time, Kyla broke down Weingarten Rights. This email will cover another important aspect of our contract, donated leave. It’s a big section, so I’ll be breaking down each chunk with a link for you to read the full contract language.

Article 23.1: What is Donated Leave?

Donated leave is covered in Article 23 of our CBA .

KRL has a pool of leave that staff can voluntarily donate some of the leave they have accrued but not used and to help other staff members who are experiencing a serious medical emergency or have an immediate family member experiencing a serious medical emergency and do not have the leave they need for it.

Article 23.2: What is a “serious medical emergency”? What qualifies as an “immediate family member?”

If a catastrophic event, such as an illness or injury, occurs to you/someone immediately close to you that you will need to care for and that will cause you to be absent from work for a prolonged period of time, you can apply to pull from this pool for leave time. Additionally, if you have unused leave time, you can donate it to this pool to help your fellow coworkers. Both of these have stipulations on eligibility, which will get into now.

Article 23.3: Who’s eligible to donate leave?

Article 23.3.1-4 lists the criteria that must be met in order to donate unused leave.

If you would like to donate some of your sick leave, you have to have accrued over 240 hours of it, and nothing below those 240 hours can be donated. For vacation, that amount is 80. You cannot donate over 120 hours of combined sick and vacation leave in any calendar year unless you are leaving KRL, and you cannot donate all of your leave balance, you might need it!

Article 23.4: Who’s eligible to receive donated leave?

Article 23.4.1-5 covers who can receive donated leave.

To be eligible to pull from the donated leave pool, you have to have used or are about to use all of your accrued leave that would otherwise force you to go on leave without pay, “about to use” meaning you have 40 hours or less of vacation and sick leave. Also, you need to have applied for Paid Family Medical Leave, are not eligible for benefits available under Chapter 51.32 in the RCW, and provide a verification from your healthcare provider that proves your eligibility. Ultimately eligibility is determined by the HR Director or someone else designated with cooperation from the Library Director with all those criteria factoring in. Leave can be used intermittently and in hourly increments. If you’re going to be using it in supplement to Paid Family Medical Leave, the leave used will be rounded to the nearest whole hour.

Article 23.5: What’s the process for donation?

Article 23.5.1-8 covers the process of donation. It is the largest of the subsections, so I’ll break them down in chunks:

Article 23.1-3 Explained:

Employees may also donate accrued and unused paid sick leave and vacation leave at time of separation. This leave must be donated in full hours not in increments. To donate paid sick leave, however, the donor-employee must acknowledge in writing that any paid sick leave donated will not be restored to the donor-employee’s paid leave bank in the event the donor-employee is re-employed within twelve (12) months.

There are no takesies-backsies once your leave has been donated, and you cannot choose who gets the leave you give.

23.5.4-23.5.6 Explained:

Your Donated Leave can only be used for time off that’s already been approved. Donated leave can be used as a supplement to PFML if the benefits through PFML are less than what you would normally take home, and you cannot request more leave than what you would normally work or cash out the leave instead of using it as time off.

23.5.7-23.5.8 Explained: Any leave donated will not be paid out to you when you are no longer employed by KRL, and if you return to work with unused Donated Leave, the remaining will go back into the Donated Leave Bank. Also, if you are using Donated Leave, you won’t accrue paid leave.

Article 23.6: How much leave is available to me?

For each 12 work periods after you first request donated leave, the total amount of leave available to you is calculated by multiplying the number of hours you are scheduled to work in your normal work week by 12.

Article 23.7: Is it voluntary?

Yes, and anonymous. Only the names of those involved in the administration of donated leave will be seen.

Article 23.8: What happens to unused Donated Leave in the Donated Leave Bank in the next calendar year?

It carries over!

Article 23.9: How is this paid for?

Article 23.9 covers this, and is pretty succinct on its own:

• Donated Leave is paid by the Library from its general assets. This benefit is unfunded and unsecured. The Donated Leave Program shall not be construed to create a trust fund, escrow account or any other form of segregated assets for the benefit of any employee.

Article 23.10: What will I hear back when I apply?

Article 23.10 explains that there is no guarantee that your application for Donated Leave will be approved, and lists the possible outcomes you may experience when applying.

If your request for Donated Leave is declined and you believe this was done in error, you can appeal the decision to the HR Director or someone designated by the HR Director. However, if your request for Donated Leave is denied, the union cannot use this denial to file a grievance against the Library.