University of Washington Human Resources

UW Organ Donor Shared Leave Program

Last updated: September 22, 2023

This page applies to all staff who accrue vacation and sick time off on a monthly basis.

The purpose of the UW Organ Donor Shared Leave Program is to encourage and support UW employees who volunteer as organ donors. The program allows employees to receive gifts of paid time off from other UW employees to cover the time off work required by the organ donation process.

Donor and recipient eligibility

The UW Organ Donor Shared Leave Program is separate from the state-authorized shared leave program. All full and part-time UW employees holding appointments with monthly vacation and sick time off accrual are eligible to participate in this program, either as organ donors requesting time off from other UW employees or as employees gifting time off to an organ donor.

Only UW employees are eligible to participate in this program.

Definition of organ donation

For this program, organ donation includes the donation of a whole organ (such as a kidney), part of an organ (such as liver), or tissue. Donation does not include blood or blood components taken by blood withdrawal.

The organ donation process includes:

• Pre-donation testing and preparation
• Organ donation procedures
• Post-donation recovery

Receiving shared leave

As an organ donor, you may receive contributions of time off from multiple employees. However, you may not receive or use more time off than is medically necessary for the complete organ donation process.

Donated hours are paid at your regular rate of pay.

Organ donor shared leave is used before any of your other paid time off. You do not have to exhaust your accrued vacation and sick time off to be eligible for a contribution from this program.

Request for shared leave

For campus staff: Submit an absence request for Shared Leave in Workday (“LOA-Shared Leave of Absence”). You can find instructions in the Shared Leave – Staff Campus user guide. Contact the ISC for additional assistance.

For medical centers staff:

• Complete and submit the Shared Leave (med centers) - Organ Donor - Request to Receive (MS Word) form to your supervisor.
• Your manager completes the department portion and forwards the form to your leave specialist.
• HR will ask you to submit health-care provider verification stating the amount of time off needed for pre-donation preparation, testing, the organ donation procedure, and recovery. If you will be requesting time off from work through the FMLA process, that paperwork likely will suffice. Your leave specialist will let you know if any additional information is needed.
• HR notifies you and your manager of the request’s approval status.
• When a shared leave donation is made to you, HR calculates the hours of shared leave that will be credited to you and notifies your departmental timekeeper, who will update your time off records.

Time off accrual while on shared leave

You accrue both sick and vacation time off while using shared time off as long as you do not take unpaid time off for more than 10 equivalent days of your FTE in a calendar month. (In other words, 80 hours for 1.0 FTE, 40 hours for 0.50 FTE.)

Returning to work

You are expected to return to work on the date specified on your leave request form. If your return will be delayed for any reason, contact your manager as soon as possible.

Prior to returning, you may be asked to submit a healthcare provider statement to Human Resources confirming that you are medically ready to return to work.

If your healthcare provider recommends a gradual return to work, you may be able to use additional organ donor shared leave for a reduced schedule or as intermittent leave, with Human Resources approval.

Unused shared leave

If you receive more contributions of time off than you need, you will be credited only with the amount of time off medically necessary. HR will return any unused shared leave hours to the employee(s) who gave to you. You may not cash out donated leave through the Attendance Incentive Program.

Donating shared leave

Time off is given to a specific individual who has been approved to receive shared leave for organ donation.

You may give vacation, sick, and personal holiday time off, but the maximum amount of time off you may give to a single recipient is 10 days. (For a full-time employee, 10 days equals 80 hours. The amount is prorated for part-time employees.)

Donation amounts

Time off must be donated in amounts of four or more hours of any particular type of time off.

Additionally, you must meet the following requirements:

Requesting to donate

For campus staff: Follow the Request Absence – Donating Sick, Vacation or Personal Holiday Time Off – Staff Campus user guide and make your donation in Workday. Contact the ISC for additional assistance.

For medical centers staff: 

• Download and complete the Shared Leave (med centers) - Organ Donor - Giving (MS Word) form.
• Submit the form to your manager for completion. Then your manager will forward it on to your HR leave specialist.
• Human Resources will notify you, your manager, and your department’s timekeeper of your contribution’s approval status.
• Once donated, the hours are deducted from your time off balance.

Returning unused donations

If the recipient of your donated hours does not use those hours, HR will return the unused hours to you. Once they are returned, you may use them for your own time off needs or donate them to someone else.

For personal holiday hours, HR will return unused hours only if the hours can be returned in the same calendar year in which they were accrued by you. You must use or re-donate those personal holiday hours before the end of that calendar year.

Manager responsibilities

Requests to receive shared leave

Follow these steps for processing a request to receive leave:

1. When an employee submits an Shared Leave (med centers) - Organ Donor - Request to Receive (MS Word) form, review the employee section of the form for accuracy, then complete the departmental section.

2. If you approve the request, forward the completed form to your leave specialist. If you believe approving the request may not be appropriate, contact your HR consultant to discuss your concerns.

3. Human Resources will send written confirmation of approval to you, the requesting employee, and your department’s timekeeper.

4. You are responsible for ensuring that the receiving employee’s time off records are adjusted accordingly when the employee receives a shared leave donation.

Requests to donate leave

Follow these steps for processing a request to donate leave:

1. When an employee submits an Shared Leave (med centers) - Organ Donor - Giving (MS Word) form, review the employee section of the form for accuracy, then complete the departmental section. The budget number specified on the form will be charged for the hours donated.

2. If you approve the request, forward the completed form to your HR leave specialist. If you believe approving this contribution may not be appropriate, contact your HR consultant to discuss your concerns.

3. HR will send written confirmation of approval to you, the employee contributing time off, and your department’s timekeeper.

4. You are responsible for ensuring that the contributing employee’s time off records are adjusted accordingly.

Budget considerations

An organ donor shared leave donation transfers money between UW budgets. You should understand the impact to your department’s finances.

The dollar amount transferred is based on the:

• Number of hours donated
• Leave donor’s hourly equivalent pay rate including benefit load amount

HR calculates the amount to be transferred and transfers the funds.

Time off donation value is calculated as follows:

(donor’s hourly salary rate) x (total time off hours donated) = total donation value

The hours of shared leave credited to the recipient is calculated as follows:

(total donation value) / (recipient’s hourly salary rate) = total shared leave hours received

Grant and Contract Accounting and Internal Audit have determined that shared leave donations are an allowable cost to grants and contracts.

Processing unused shared leave hours

Human Resources calculates any hours to be returned to the employee who contributed the time off and notifies the department’s timekeeper. The timekeeper makes the appropriate adjustments to the employee’s work/time off records and payroll.

Additional resources

• APS 45.9 Organ Donation Leave Sharing Policy