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Donating Blood Blood leave is covered in the ELM. It is a type of administrative leave paid for by the Postal Service. You are paid your regular pay for the time to travel to and from the donation site and the time to donate and rest after donating the blood. The blood must be donated on a scheduled workday during your normal hours of work. Submit a PS 3971 noting "Blood Leave" and the time and date you would like to donate. Thrift Plan We are still in Open Season for the Thrift Plan -- until January 31. All CSRS and FERS employees can increase their deductions. Sell That Annual Usually in November and December of each year, employees have the opportunity to sell back up to 40 hours of annual leave. You must meet two requirements. * You must be at the maximum 440 hour carry over at the start of the leave year. That would be now. * You must have used fewer than 75 sick leave hours in the leave year for which the leave is being sold. That would be this (2002) year. Prepare and you can sell your leave. Sick Leave The ELM 513.5 addresses advance sick leave. The leave is advanced up to 30 days (240 hours) for cases of serious ailments or disability if there is reason to believe the employee will return to duty. This leave can be advanced whether or not the employees have annual leave. You must plan on coming back to work and your medical documentation should state this. Also, you must repay the Postal Service back the leave allowed to you. The leave will be deducted as you earn it. If you're out of leave and face surgery or another serious condition, advance leave can keep the wolf from the door. Dependent Care Sick leave for dependent care allows you to use up to 80 hours of your sick leave rather than annual or LWOP to care for a covered family member. It can, in some instances, apply to a FMLA absence. If a covered family member has a serious health condition (as defined by the Family Medical Leave Act), then the absence will be covered by the FMLA, also. There is no special documentation requirements for using dependent care. Just like for your regular sick leave use, management should accept an employee's statement as reason for an absence. As in your regular sick leave usage documentation should be provided on the fourth day and beyond. However, if management requests documentation for three days or less, you must bring in the documentation and ask to see a steward to file a grievance. Your steward can ask for out-of-pocket expenses, mileage, and overtime pay to get the documentation. If management requests documentation improperly, bring it in and get paid for it. More next time . . . if you have a subject you would like to see addressed here, call the office at 486-3999 and leave a message with the subject matter and I'll see that it gets done. See ya, C.J.P. Sources: South Jersey Postal Express; The Communicator |
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