UW-MADISON GUIDELINES FOR REQUESTING/DONATING CATASTROPHIC LEAVE
For Faculty, Academic Staff, and Limited Appointments

As stated in Unclassified Personnel Guideline 9.06, catastrophic illness is defined as “any illness, medical condition or injury that incapacitates, or is expected to incapacitate an employee or an employee’s ‘immediate family member,’ as defined in UPG 10.01.”
Determining Recipient Eligibility: In order to be an eligible recipient, the faculty, academic staff, or limited appointee must satisfy the following conditions:

• Without Catastrophic Leave, the employee would need to be on a leave of absence without pay (may be a partial or full-time leave).
• Have exhausted all sick leave, vacation, personal and floating holiday hours, and be currently unable to receive Income Continuation Insurance (because of the waiting period or ineligibility due to lack of coverage or the reason for leave is not covered by ICI).
• Provide sufficient information, to the dean or designee, to conclude that a catastrophic illness or medical condition exists.
• Complete the “Catastrophic Leave Request” form (can be done on employee’s behalf if necessary).

Donor Requirements:

• Be an A-basis faculty, academic staff, or limited employee within the university.
• Donate leave hours (vacation, personal/floating holidays) in full day increments only. Sick leave may not be donated.
• Complete the “Donor Authorization for Catastrophic Leave” form.

Procedure:

• All requests for Catastrophic Leave must be approved by the dean or designee. Once approved, it is forwarded to the recipient’s payroll unit.  Each dean’s office will administer the leave provisions and maintain a case file for each donor.
• A donor completes the authorization form, which is sent to his/her payroll office. The payroll office sends the original form to the recipient’s payroll office, and maintains a copy for tracking hours depleted.
• The recipient’s payroll office maintains a record of the date the authorization form(s) are received (in the case file). If multiple forms are received, hours are to be taken from donors in chronological order based on the date the donor form was received.
• When necessary, the donor’s payroll office transfers the hours out of the donor’s account, which are then held in an account created for the recipients use. (This information may need to be tracked manually).
• Recipient receives pay for the amount of leave time available from donors during each pay period up to his/her normally scheduled hours. If the employee is on a partial leave, the combination of hours worked and catastrophic leave hours received may not exceed the percentage of his/her budgeted appointment. Employees will earn benefits, including leave, for the time they are in pay status while using catastrophic leave. Departments may not allow earned leave to reach more than 16 hours for an individual receiving Catastrophic Leave.
• Both the donor and recipient’s leave file should indicate that catastrophic leave was used (for future reference).

Case File

The following information must be maintained by the dean’s office of the recipient in a case file for each occurrence of catastrophic leave for five years.

• Recipient’s name and Person ID number
• Copy of the Catastrophic Leave Request form
• The number of hours that the recipient used in each pay period.
• Donor Name(s) and Person ID number
• The number of hours and type of leave donated.
• The effective date for the donated leave (when the authorization form is received)
• The date that the leave is actually used by recipient (date hours are transferred for payroll).